Study: Very few Millennials trust advice from travel agents

Young rebellious couple listening together to music at the beach. Bondi Beach, NSW Australia
By Daisy Melwani


A new travel study by youth website The Urban List has found Millennials (the 18-34s) are not flocking to travel agents when it comes to their travel plans.

The study interviewed almost 14,000 Gen Ys and found that when it came to travel advice, Gen Ys said that the advice of family and friends was the most trusted.Some 76 per cent said it was their best source of travel advice and only 25 per cent said they got advice from travel agents.Other chief findings of the study included:

  • For accommodation bookings, 23 per cent of the Ys said they dealt directly with the hotel itself. A fifth used AirBnB, 11 per cent used Expedia, 11 per cent used Wotif and 11 per cent used Hotels.com.
  • Fifty four per cent said they’d prefer to stay in a boutique hotel, while only 8 per cent of the Ys wanted to stay in the traditional youth accommodation – the backpacker hostel. Forty per cent preferred to stay in an AirBnB and 19 per cent with friends or family.
  • Which airline do they want to travel with? Some 55 per cent admitted the flew with whoever the could get the best deal, 19 per cent are loyal to an airline, 17 per cent flew with whomever had the least amount of stops and four per cent flew with whoever they could use their frequent flyers with.
  • Tasmania is the most desirable Aussie holiday destination for Millennials (the 18-34s) and New York was the overseas destination the majority of Ys wanted to visit.
  • Tasmania was voted Australia’s favourite place to visit followed by Melbourne, Uluru, the Gold Coast and Broome.
  • New York was easily the most desirable overseas city on Ys’ travel list. However, female respondents wanted to visit Japan, Greece, Paris and Italy. While for the males Japan, Italy, Iceland and Paris were the most desirable locations.
  • Why are the Ys travelling? According to the study, 30 per cent go for the culture, 26 per cent wanted to “live like a local”, 23 per cent “wanted to chill”, 17 per cent wanted “action”, three per cent wanted to shop and two per cent wanted to “meet cool people”.
  • Some 33 per cent said they wanted “great scenery” when choosing a destination. Thirty per cent wanted “great food”. Some 18 per cent wanted the beach, 11 per cent adventure activities, four percent a big city, three per cent night life and two per cent great shopping.
  • And who do the Ys want to travel with? Fifty three per cent want to travel with their partners, 22 per cent with a friend, 16 per cent with family and nine per cent would rather go alone.
  • And Sydneysiders love to visit Melbourne, with 62 per cent saying they’d visited the city. However, only 54 per cent of Melburnians had returned the favour.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments

    1. …yes, in some instances airbnb is not cheaper… but still successful… millenials are tecky peeps… no amount of superb packages will entice millenials to take the offer unless you present it to them in clicks and flicks… what matter to millenials is electronic accessibility, user friendly, convenience and instant confirmation sophistication… now you know.. you’re welcome…

    2. airbnb aren’t necessarily cheaper, just different. If NYC found good hotels cheaper, that provided breakfasts & even some buffet dinners including drinks(2 choices of beer & 2 choices of wine)

    3. ….do you know why uber and airbnb are so successful… because of the millennials… agent should work around uber and airbnb systems to get milennials’ attention at least….

@australia airbnb destinations millennials new york tasmania travel agents

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