The Experience Economy is over taking the need for materialistic goods, led by the Millennials who were the first generation brought up in the Experience Economy. It is essential to remember that there were significant experiences prior to this generation, however disposable income was not prioritised for convenience and experiences the way today’s generation do. The expansion of social media is controlling the growth of experiences through digital imagery. Research is variable and inconclusive, debating if social media and geo-technology are causing more damage to the environment or creating a wholesome growth. Arguments for both sides hold up, due to business development following an increase of experiences and more accessibility to purchase from brands. The counter argument, however, shows disadvantages and concerns related to environmental erosion, damage and animal conservation.
The writer has explored and compared different lifestyle choices from a variety of generations, focusing on Millennials and Generation X to see how being brought up during the 60’s compares to being brought in the new Millennium and the effects on the economy and lifestyle choices. The biggest changes have been created by the introduction of social media. No-one could have predicted the dramatic change in the way we view the world and the experiences we all now share. Whether they are positive or negative the world has irreversibly changed. However, with the concerns over the environment clearly geotagging needs some careful consideration for its future impact. For the tourism industry the growth in business should be embraced but monitored closely as over tourism is becoming a real thing.
All generations have the same basic needs in life, however Millennials are changing some aspects about their lifestyle’s choices. “Millennials are the first generation to really grow up in the Experience Economy (Pine, 2019)” due to this, businesses are changing marketing techniques for Millennials as traditional methods are inefficient compared to new approaches and trends coming through, such as personalisation. (Marketline, 2017) This said, primarily in the beauty and fashion industry Millennials are most engaged when marketing is done through social media sites such as: YouTube, Instagram, blogs and vlogs. (Marketline, 2017)
Research has shown that over the last 12 months websites and apps have become the most popular platform for users to find out information on attractions (Emmanuel, 2019). Visit England found Facebook to be the most in demand platform for attractions, followed by Twitter. Nevertheless, Instagram is increasing, with 52% of attractions present on Instagram compared to 11% in 2013 (Mintel, 2019). Clearly these statistics indicate the high demand for Instagram since its rapid growth from launch in 2010 and being acquired by Facebook in 2012. 21% of visitors visited an attraction’s social media page in the last 12 months, rising to 32% for 16-24s (Mintel, 2019). It is easy to see how important social media has become to the tourist industry
To conclude social media, the statistics indicate the importance and power of social media now for business growth and interaction with consumers. The information shows the need for businesses to have an eye-catching and easy to navigate site so that consumers can purchase easily through social media.
There are clear indications that the growth of social media is having a negative impact on millennials and the younger generation, however there are now positives emerging from powerful messages, being able to be portrayed and discussed which can reach a variety of audiences.
Location is becoming increasingly important in the virtual universe. Geo-tagging is allowing a variety of personalization’s to meet the needs of consumers. Previously geolocation technology was based on The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Hussain, 2019). However, with the increase of technological improvements, geolocation has been added into many marketing techniques to improve business infrastructure. This is done through people sharing their location with GPS. (Hussain, 2019).
In the current year geolocation has allowed customers to identify experiences through geotagging from other consumer experiences. This technology has allowed people to adjust their experience to their exact taste and preference. (Mintel, 2019)
The power of social media and geo-tagging has had a positive effect on the tourist industry enabling them to find out about places they may otherwise never have known around the world. Not only this, reviews from those people who geo-tag the locations and associated photographic evidence on other social media platforms, gives the tourist access to information never previously available. This said, in terms of the location, geotagging can have both a positive and negative effect. An example of this is the elephant sanctuaries in Thailand.
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