Millennial & Gen Ex Vacationers….Oh Yeah!

Mom & Dad, mid thirties, two kids….so Disney World is a logical vacation destination.  Well, it was.  The 30 somethings and younger crowd often see a vacation in a completely different light.   So pay attention.   The interval ownership, timeshare and fractional folks are coming around slowly but they will get there.

Zip lining, hiking, biking or sitting in a coffer shop at the beach with your smart phone can be a vacation for these folks.  Does not mean timeshare is out.  In fact, these guys timeshare everything from cars via Uber etc, bikes via most urban areas “share a bike program”, sofas  via Air BnB  to lawn mowers via renting from Home Depot.  No, they get it when comes to sharing stuff.   Don’t forget that Gen Xers say that on average they will spend over $4,000 a year on “vacationing”.  Now this might be made up of 3 or 4 two day trips to hike a mountain or see a concert or sky dive somewhere but they are spending money.

Also and importantly, they are getting married much later, if at all, having fewer kids and have less structure overall.  So buying an old fashioned, brick and mortar condo overlooking a  golf course might be a hard sell for some of these folks.   And buying  a bunch of points, well that is so 90s ish.  And you don’t have an App that shows my unit on live web cam…well that seems weird.

Its not a perfect call and the fractional business seems poised for more great things but those that figure out how to compete for the GEN X timeshare crowd will have cool and flexible Club memberships that update Apps daily and that have a constant string of new activities to try and will have 2 day deals at many locations with drive to options outnumbering fly in destinations.   They will have a lot of technology stuff around the resorts and will have programs for singles.  That’s where we are headed.  Recent stops in San Diego, Austin and Ft. Lauderdale re-affirmed this trend.

There will always be a market for the high end consumer but the mid-market consumer base is growing.

 

For other no-nonsense fractional stuff, visit with Terry Christopher Bounds directly.