Today’s teens are following hard on the heels of Millennials in terms of tourism.
The “marketing to Millennials” mantra—referring most often to 20-something travelers who want it all and want it all different and are willing to pay for both—has been a hospitality business buzz phrase for several years.
Hotels have come to the party in the form of “lifestyle” properties with an experience focus and plenty of craft beer.
Take Irvine-based Montage Hotels & Resorts: It launched its Pendry Hotels division in October and broke ground on the first project, in San Diego, specifically for the demographic.
Now tourism-focused venues are starting to look for the next big thing, and Millennials’ little brothers and sisters could be it.
Teenage travelers are part of what’s being called Generation Z, roughly ages 0 to 19, with a focus on the high end of the range. They may lack some of the financial heft of their Millennial elders—they can’t rent their own hotel rooms, for instance—in other ways they’re plenty powerful.
“Reaching consumers at a young age is crucial for brand retention and to get your product at the top of their mind for years to come,” said Scott Shaffstall, president of the Gen Now Agency in Trabuco Canyon.
He cautioned against overstating the case—“teens are a complement, not a stand-alone business model,” he said—and in some ways the next wave of travelers is “still a group that is finding its way.”
Still, Shafftall said, “it’s not misguided” to pursue them.
“It’s ROI for the future.”
Numbers Tell Story
U.S. census figures show there were 41.8 million U.S. residents between ages 10 and 19 in 2012, just below the 42.6 million Millennials, who are 20 to 29.
One news report estimated that teens influence 93% of household spending decisions, and those households—unlike the single or young married Millennials who are starting families or beginning to pay college debts—include parents in the full flower of their earning years.
Orange County drew 46.1 million visitors last year, according to the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau and San Diego-based market researcher CIC Research Inc. Travelers ages 12 to 17 accounted for about 6% of those numbers, or 3.6 million people. Teens ages 18 to 19, who are counted as part of a different group, would increase that total slightly.
Orange County is also a popular destination for international travelers—4 million foreign visitors came here last year (see chart on page 20)—including teens.
A May 11 news story by the Wall Street Journal said two of the fastest growing groups of foreign travelers—between 2011 and 2013 compared with 2005 to 2007—are Chinese Millennials and Chinese teens.
Teens, who typically have more time than most pre-retirement people due to lengthy periods off from school, tend to stay longer than other travelers and spend more money.
A 2011 report by the Netherlands-based World Youth Student and Educational Travel Confederation said that about a third of younger international travelers’ trips are funded by their families; the kids have the time to take longer trips; while traveling, they more often get visits from others who’ve come to the same location; and they spend about three times more on travel than other tourists—$2,600 compared with $950.
About 60% of youths’ travel budgets are spent at the destination, and more than half of such travelers return to places they visited when younger, the report found.
Anaheim Gets Big Slice
More than 21 million people visited Anaheim last year, up 16% over 2013, with about 1 million teens in that city alone, according to the convention center.
“Hotels and conventions are the biggest dollar [draw]” for teen travel here, said Ed Fuller, chief executive of the Orange County Visitors Association in Irvine.
Fuller cited local efforts to land the Comic-Con convention as an example of the push to bring events that are popular with younger audiences to Orange County.
A spokesperson for the Anaheim/OC Visitor & Convention Bureau noted other “teen-centric conventions our sales team brings to Anaheim” this year include the YouTube- and online-entertainment focused VidCon from July 23 to 25, and BlizzCon, which runs Nov. 6 and 7.
VidCon is reaching even younger—naming a 9-year-old to one of the show’s discussion panels.
Columbus, Ohio-based Business Professionals of America, a youth group for business education from middle school through college, held its national leadership conference in Anaheim this month.
A “Star Wars” movie event at the convention center in mid-April had fans lining up the night before the four-day event to get in, and organizers of the D23 Expo expect 65,000 attendees at a three-day, all-things-Disney event in August.
“Teens will be well-represented [because] so much of Disney appeals to the teen market,” said Kristin Rodack, marketing director for D23, which is Disney’s fan club.
The “Star Wars” movie franchise and D23 are both part of the Walt Disney Co.
The expo is held every other year and attracts fans of the company’s merchandise, media and memorabilia.
Also big with teens are three cheerleading and dance competitions and shows—American Showcase, United Spirit Association, and the JAMZ Cheer & Dance Competition & Expo, the convention center said.
Those half-dozen shows together bring more than 150,000 people to the convention center.
Sports, Education Events
A second big draw for teens are the beach areas from South County to Newport to Huntington, and hotels and resorts along the coast offer programs for teen guests.
The Resort at Pelican Hill has Latitude for Teens, said spokesperson Kate Starr.
The fee-based program offers scavenger hunts using mobile phones; beach sports; movie nights; photography hikes; and other events. About 6,000 kids a year participate in it and Camp Pelican, which is geared to guests ages 4 to 12.
The St. Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point runs “a phenomenal beach program” through the Monarch Bay Club that includes teens, said Chris White, the resort’s area director of sales and marketing.
The Vans US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach draws thousands of spectators each summer, many of them teens.
“Teens like the surfing championship,” said OCVA’s Fuller. “Some [destination marketing organizations] are also pursuing sporting events.”
Other sporting events in Orange County this year include the Men’s Collegiate Lacrosse Association national tournament, which was held at University of California-Irvine and Chapman University in Orange two weeks ago.
Local venues, including Chapman and Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, will host athletes and coaches as part of the Special Olympics World Games in L.A. July 21 to 24.
Other annual and one-time events also draw teens to OC, several of them focused on education.
Concordia University in Irvine holds an annual Teen Entrepreneur Academy, which draws about 80 students to the campus for a week to learn how to write business plans and pitch startup ideas.
Concordia Business School Dean Stephen Christensen said that about 25% of the students who register are foreign-born and either live or attend high school locally or travel to Irvine for the event.
Past academies have attracted students from France, Brazil, Canada and the Dominican Republic.
Christensen spent about two weeks in China this spring visiting high schools to recruit for the event.
“You work with agents in China, and they get you students,” he said.
The team that won last year’s events included three Chinese students.
A restaurant competition for high schools—the National ProStart Invitational—was held April 18 to 20 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim.
The event, hosted by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, brought 382 high school students to the hotel from 45 states and several foreign countries, including two teams from California, one of which was from Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, to compete in cooking and restaurant business categories.
