Tourism operators advised to change tactics, think younger

Move over baby boomers, the days when you commanded the lion's share of the retail landscape havecome and gone. There's a new generation of consumers ripe for wooing, at least according to some marketing experts.

It's the millennials those born between 1980 and 2000, and that's going to mean some big changes soon for Island business owners and tourism operators who are trying to bring people to P.E.I.

Market researcherDavid Coletto, from Abacus Data in Ottawa, was in Charlottetown this week, spreading that message to local businesses.

"Over a quarter of the population was born between 1980 and 2000," Coletto told Matt Rainnie on Island Morning. "So when you think of the consumer power that this group has, I like to say that they're going to dominate everything, whether it's politics, employment or tourism, in the same way that baby boomers have for the last 40 years, millennials will for the next 40."

Millennials, Coletto said, are verydifferent from their parents and grandparents.

"Millennials are the 'do' versus 'have'. They are far more likely to want to do things with their time and their money, than have and own things."

Island ideal

What the Island can offer them is that chance to experience something real, instead of online.

"They spend almost their entire life on a device of some sort in front of a screen," said Coletto. "So we crave sensory experiences in response to that. So when you think about going to a restaurant and having a great experience around food, or travelling ...the touch, taste, the sounds, smells, all of that, the craving for that is even more enhanced for my generation because of the digital saturation that we lead in our day-to-day lives."

Coletto warnedthat the old methods of buying ads, printing brochures and making travel guides aren't going to reach these new consumers, who are more likely on social media.

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"If you're a hotel and partner with a local oyster farmer, you can find people on Facebook who like oysters," he said as an example. "Facebook has the ability to find that, you can create some advertising and reach out and say, come to P.E.I. and experience it first-hand, instead of me in Ottawa where the oysters are delicious and they're P.E.I. oysters, but you don't get that authentic experience. That's what millennials are looking for."

Even if the business owner is uncomfortable or unfamiliar with social media, Coletto said there are plenty of people on the Island who can be hired for those skills, and lots of resources available through groups such as Meetings and Conventions Prince Edward Island and the Tourism Industry Association of PEI.

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