The Generation Gap

THE GENERATION GAPnnI admit it. I am a Baby Boomer. This is said with some trepidation as this means confessing I can remember when most television shows were filmed in black and white. I can also recall seeing photos of Civil War soldiers when they were still alive. Granted they were in their nineties, old as the hills, and were drummer boys when the war was going on and I myself when was a tiny tot when I saw their photos, but still… That being said, I can also be proud that we Baby Boomers have contributed to the significant technological growth that has astounded the world once we got past the Flower Children, the Vietnam War and Watergate. Of course, we have also produced Bill Clinton and George Bush, but that’s another story. As we jog into the New Millennium many of us are retiring in mass numbers and hitting the road. We are a travel agent’s dream come true- as credit card in hand, we roam the world. Recently, in Pattaya, Thailand, the 55th Pacific Asia Travel Agency (PATA) held a session on “Baby Boomers and the Challenge of Generations X and Y in relation to the Far Eastern market and the Pacific Rim, which is worth noting. In case you couldn’t tell Generation X from a hole in the ground, here is a quickie course in Generation terminology starting from 1900.nn• 1900-1910 Interbellum Generation n• 1910-1924 G.I. Generationn• 1911-1924 Greatest Generationn• 1929-1956 American Highn• 1925-1945 Silent Generationn• 1946-1964 Baby Boomersn• 1948-1962 Beat Generationn• 1954-1965 Generation Jonesn• 1964-1984 Consciousness Revolutionn• 1958-1968 Baby Bustersn• 1961-1981 Generation Xn• 1975-1985 MTV Generationn• 1984-2005 Culture Wars Generationn• 1981-1986 Boomerang Generationn• 1982-2003 Generation YnnDon’t ask me who makes up this stuff up, but there you are. Now back to the PATA conference. It turns out that Asia is not a “young” market, according to Asian Demographics CEO and Expert, Dr. Clint Laurent. If you are a travel agent who deals in the Asian market or is thinking about it, then listen up. Dr. Laurent says that China’s one-child policy has created a deep divide between older and younger generations in the same way that Baby Boomers in Japan have impacted the generational divide. Here in a nutshell are travel trends predicted for Generations Baby Boomers, X and Y:nn• The Japanese have the largest and most affluent Baby Boomer market in the Pacific Asia.n• The Over-40 group in Hong Kong, Chinese Taipai and Korea is climbing the fastest and hence are predicted to start traveling more.n• 1% of China’s 200 million Baby Boomers are endowed with a reasonable amount of money and time. (I should hope so. Everything in the US is made in China, practically. Let’s lure them to the US and get our money back!).n• India has the youngest market.n• Japanese Baby Boomers and Generation X are driving the country’s outbound travel.n• Australian and New Zealand Baby Boomers spend an average of AU$200-AU$300 per day. (Big Spenders come from DownUnder. Don’t forget it!)n• German Baby Boomer travelers to the Asia/Pacific region prefer to create their own holiday packages. Generations X and Y appear difficult to predict, but it would appear that Generation Y prefers to purchase consumer goods. Think computers, big screen televisions and cell phones here. However, if I were a Generation X’er travel agent, I would start worrying about my peers stooped over their computer keyboards and only getting vicarious thrills from the Travel Channel. Maybe they should rename the Baby Boomers the “Get-Up and Go” generation! After the last of the Baby Boomers goes to that final travel destination in the sky, I hope they have figured out a way to get the Generations we have left behind off their duffs. But probably by then they will have invented “virtual travel” and send you on a trip Timothy Leary never dreamed about. Talk about your armchair traveler!