Survey: Eiffel Tower, Croissants most photographed Millennial tourist site

Millennials favor Instagram less during vacations, non-millennials rely on Facebook to plan trips

Millennials are one of the most prominent age groups – in fact, they’re set to surpass baby boomers as the largest living generation. In light of this, Fat Tire Tours wanted to understand their travel behaviors. The Fat Tire Tours team conducted a worldwide travel survey of over 1,500 respondents earlier this year focusing on travel habits and technology. We looked at how travelers used social media before and during vacation, and we looked at what travelers liked to experience throughout various cities. As the final installment of our worldwide travel survey, we examined the travel behaviors surrounding one of the most prominent age groups of recent time: millennials.

Where do millennials travel, and with whom?

For millennials, it’s all about the bright lights and big cities. An overwhelming majority (67 percent) prefer a city vacation over all others, whereas non-millennials prefer the beach (67 percent) over all others.

And, call it the Coachella effect – millennials are 58 percent more likely to choose a desert vacation destination than non-millennials, who are 17 percent more likely to visit the countryside on vacation.

Millennials are also more inclined to reap the benefits of solo travel, as they’re 34 percent more likely than non-millennials to travel alone. Additionally, millennials are 62 percent more likely to choose to travel with friends compared to non-millennials. When traveling, both millennials and non-millennials most often travel with a partner or spouse, at 60 percent and 74.4 percent, respectively.

Millennial social media usage

Millennials are 37 percent more likely to say they used social media more often during vacation. Non-millennials are also 24 percent more likely to say they used social media more after vacation.

More than one-third of millennials said they use social media very frequently or frequently when planning vacations. Millennials are 132 percent more likely to say they use social media very frequently or frequently to plan their vacations.

Millennials and non-millennials rely on different platforms for planning their vacations. We also found that millennials use a wider variety of platforms to plan their vacations. Non-millennials prefer to stick to Facebook to plan different aspects of their vacations. Out of the five vacation aspects surveyed, non-millennials favored Facebook to plan four out of five of them: buildings/architecture/monuments, experiences/activities, visiting nature and food/dining. The most popular for Millennials was Instagram: two out of the five vacation aspects surveyed (visiting nature and food/dining).

The most common platform and planning category combo for both millennials and non-millennials was planning accommodations using Yelp, TripAdvisor or other review sites, with 36.35 percent of millennials and 41.6 percent of non-millennials.

During vacations, millennials prefer a wider range of social platforms during vacation. Instagram use for millennials was actually less favored during for the five activity categories surveyed. In fact, it wasn’t preferred for any category. Non-millennials prefer Yelp/TripAdvisor and other Review Sites instead of Facebook during vacation. Non-millennials preferred Yelp/Trip Advisor during their vacations for four out of five vacation categories.

The most common platform and activity category combo for both millennials and non-millennials was using Yelp/Trip Advisor (38.62 percent of millennials and 54.07 percent of non-millennials) to plan food or dining arrangements.

Millennials are 16 percent more likely than non-millennials to check social media during vacations and are 21 percent more likely to check their social media multiple times per day during vacations.

What are millennials posting on social?

As mentioned in our earlier post, the Eiffel Tower and croissants were the most photographed by those surveyed. And, more often than not, millennials and non-millennials snapped photos of different attractions and foods. Paris’ Eiffel Tower was the most photographed by millennials (31.7 percent), and London’s Tower Bridge was most photographed by non-millennials (11 percent). Croissants were the most photographed food (21.69 percent) from millennials, with non-millennials photographing fish and chips (6.69 percent).

Here’s the breakdown by city:

• Paris
  • Attraction: Eiffel Tower (32 percent)
  • Food: Croissants (21.69 percent)
• Barcelona
  • Attraction: Sagrada Família (17 percent)
  • Food: Patatas bravas (13.47 percent)
• London
  • Attraction:  Tower Bridge (19.79 percent)
  • Food: Sunday roast and Yorkshire pudding (14.18 percent)
• Berlin
  • Attraction: Tie – Reichstag Building and Museum Island (8 percent)
  • Food: Currywurst (9.18 percent)
• Munich
  • Attraction: Deutsches Museum (7.63 percent)
  • Food: Schweinshaxe and Knödel (7.03 percent)

Doing it for the ‘gram

Filters and editing for vacation is dominated by millennials. They are 196 percent more likely to use a certain aesthetic or consistent color theme before posting vacation photos. Millennials are also are 43 percent more likely than non-millennials to use filters on vacation photos posted on social media. Meanwhile, non-Millennials are 80 percent more likely to post photos as they are.