Expert: Tourism must change with times

AUGUSTA – This isn’t your father’s tourism industry, tourism business owners and operators were told Tuesday at a conference at the local civic center.

Judy Randall did not actually quote or paraphrase any famous car’s commercial ads when she addressed the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism, but she did warn people in the business that the industry is going to have to change to successfully market itself to new generations of consumers.

Randall, president and CEO of a North Carolina tourism and travel consulting firm, said that different generations have different preferences, habits and means of communication. As people born during the “baby boom” – between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s – approach retirement and their children become weeklong vacationers, tourism businesses will have to adapt their marketing schemes and services in order to attract customers, she said.

“Never in the history of mankind has there been such huge generational differences in the different generational groups,” Randall said, pointing out that her father rode to church in a wagon when he was a boy and ended up owning a personal computer in his old age. “That’s a lot of change in one lifetime.”

The so-called “war” generation, who became adults during World War II, is shrinking as a portion of the tourism market, she said. These are people who grew up in an era of sacrifice, who are miserly in their spending habits but are willing to stand for hours on end.

The baby boomers, on the other hand, like to indulge themselves but do not want to spend a lot of time standing around learning about every last detail of a museum or a historical site, according to Randall. This generation has benefited from Disney’s reduction of waiting lines at its theme parks and is behind the growing popularity of themed or designer funerals, she said.

“On their way out the door, it’s going to be one big party,” Randall said.

Following the baby boomers, members of Generation X grew up during the Watergate and energy-crisis era of the 1970s, when the role of family was less significant than it had been for prior generations, she said. Gen-Xers are more detailed and value-oriented when spending their money, unlike baby boomers, who spend more freely.

“They will do research for two years, buy one couch and keep it forever,” Randall said. “They are very frugal.”

Because of the relative lack of family influence on their early lives, Gen-Xers are behind the revived popularity of family reunions, according to Randall. She said accommodation and food-service businesses in the tourism industry could offer reunion planning to help lure members of Generation X as their customers.

The most recently developed age group of consumers, which Randall called the millennium generation, in many ways is more sophisticated than earlier generations. They have quickly grasped onto new technology, despite their relatively young age, and tend to be more self-confident and savvy.

“These are consumers on steroids,” Randall said. “They’re also easily bored.”

Museums and similar attractions are finding they have to offer more interactive exhibits in order to hold the interest of the millennium generation, she said.

The conference also featured workshops, talks by Maine tourism officials and travel writer Steve Jermanok, and the presentation of annual tourism industry awards. Bangor Area Transportation Community Connector, the Vacationland Resources Committee of Down East Resource Conservation and Development Council, and Cathy and Bill Shamel of the Grand Lake Stream Folk Art Festival were among the award winners.