The Changing Habits of China’s Millennial Travelers — Digital Marketing News This Week

Consisting of more than 400 million people, Chinese millennials represent an emerging force in consumer spending.

Goldman Sachs went so far as to label them “the most important demographic on the planet today.” But as Skift has explained in recent investigations of millennial travelers, their habits are not always like those of their older peers. Not only are Chinese millennial travelers wealthier on average, they tend to prefer independent travel over group tours and gravitate toward mobile channels like WeChat for research and booking.

What strategies are working best for marketers hoping to reach this emerging consumer group? Read on for more thoughts, plus the rest of this week’s marketing news.

New Research Reveals Insights Into Habits of China’s Millennial Travelers
Most travel marketers are already aware of the huge potential of the Chinese travel market. But in the growing rush to cater to China’s tourism market, it’s important to take a deeper look at individual consumer segments like Chinese millennials. These emerging travel consumers, representing several hundred million individuals, illustrate surprisingly different habits from their elders. Read more

Pinterest Unveils New Initiative to Pair “Super Users” With Brands
One of the toughest challenges facing travel marketers using social media is finding good content. While branded messages may get approval from the boardroom, they often fail miserably at inspiring engagement with the media-savvy audiences that frequent social sites like Pinterest, Tumblr and Snapchat. Pinterest’s new “Pin Collective” is one example of how social platforms are trying to help brands make more inspiring content. Read more

How Marketers Can Make Better Use Location Data 
Skift has talked about the importance of location data to travel marketers in the past. This week we have further evidence that others in the industry agree. Here are a few tips for how marketers can build location intelligence into their future marketing efforts. Read more

Emirates Considers Adding More Passenger Fees Amid Slack in Demand
Earlier this month, Skift reported that Emirates’ was introducing of a new seat-selection fee for its economy class passengers. Now comes news that the UAE-based airline is considering the addition of more ancillary fees for passengers, including charges for premium economy seating. A strong dollar and a decline in business class demand among wealthy oil executives are both contributing to the airline’s new approach. Read more

Travel Executive Imagines Tomorrow’s Travel Booking Platform
It may seem hard to believe, but travel booking platforms like Expedia and Priceline have been around for nearly 20 years. Yet, as many industry observers would admit, not a whole has changed about how you use these sites to buy travel products. As new tools like mobile, voice search and artificial intelligence offer new interfaces for consumers, how might travel booking change in the future? Here’s one vision, courtesy of Hitlist CEO Gillian Morris. Read more

How Hilton Uses Hotel Technology to Improve the Guest Experience
Guest technology is on most hotel marketer’s minds these days as a range of hospitality brands roll out new services like mobile check-in, smartphone room keys and new personalization tools powered by customer data. Here’s some thoughts on the “do’s and don’t’s” of guest technology from an interview with Hilton Worldwide CMO Geraldine Calpin. Read more