ITB Berlin News 2018 - Review Edition

12 NEWS
Alexander
Schwarz
Country Manager DACH,
Airbnb
Marti
Grimminck
Founder & CEO,
International Connector
Your Big Year USA
Marti Grimminck, founder and CEO of
International Connector, was back at ITB Berlin
this year. Grimminck works as an educator
for many organisations, facilitating leadership
teams through a paradigm shift in their approach
to the emerging workforce today. She was at
the show talking about a new project for young
travellers. We asked her to tell us more.
This summer, 4 young
GenZs will travel from
Chicago to San Francisco in
the name of Your Big Year.
With support from amazing
US cities such as Nashville,
St. Louis, Birmingham and
the US National Parks
Conservation Association,
and a band of youth travel
specialists including
Smaller Earth, World
Nomads and the Student
Youth Travel Association
(SYTA), we will see a new
voice and perspective on
travel.
Who is Generation Z?
This emerging
demographic is just
hitting adulthood, and the
generation is bringing a
fury of new technological
habits, expectations and
more importantly new
social rules. Similar to
Millennials, GenZs are keen
to forge their own way and
make their own decisions
on products and services.
The self-customisation
opportunity allows them
to authentically find what
is their personal interest.
Generation Z consumer
is not to be overlooked
anywhere globally. In
the US alone there are
65 million, with a total
buying power of $43bn.
Furthermore, GenZs bring
an additional $600bn of
family purchasing power
and 93% of parents
of this generation say
their children influence
their family’s spending
(Chamber of Commerce).
What makes them a
challenge to reach is that
their media consumption
is different than older
generations. In fact,
according to a study by the
University of Maryland,
79% of GenZs display
symptoms of emotional
distress when kept away
from their personal
electronic devices.
What exactly is Your Big
Year USA?
Your Big Year USA
production will set off in
July 2018 from Chicago
with four young travellers
and a filmmaker. The trip
will explore all means of
travel from flights, car,
train, bus and even bicycle,
as well as all means of
accommodation from
hostels, hotels, sharedspaces,
camping and RVs!
In each of the city stops,
the Your Big Year travelers
will explore what makes
this destination unique
including diving into
historical, cultural and
sociological elements. For
example, in Birmingham,
the youth will have a civil
rights tour with a ‘foot
soldier’ of the civil rights
movement.
The trip will be documented
in a series of short-content
webisodes, a reality-TV
3.0 format, supplemented
by social posts, snaps,
chats and tweets, again,
reaching the Generation Z
and millennial audience
THE
GENERATION Z IS
BRINGING A FURY
OF NEW
TECHNOLOGICAL
HABITS,
EXPECTATIONS
AND MORE
IMPORTANTLY
NEW SOCIAL
RULES.
Business Travel
Driving Airbnb
Forward
The world of business travel continues
to change. Alexander Schwarz, Country
Manager DACH at Airbnb, said that
the accommodation group is looking
to develop its business offer. We asked
him firstly about current business travel
trends.
The lines between business and leisure
travel are blurring; more and more of us are
combining business trips with weekend stays.
In fact, more than 50% of business trips on
Airbnb in 2016 included a Saturday night.
Airbnb gives travellers a chance to live in a city
when traveling for work.
How have you adapted the platform for the
business travel market?
We’ve made a number of improvements to
make business travel on Airbnb easier and
more convenient. We launched a third-party
booking tool for example so both the employee
who is managing travel, and the employee who
is taking the trip, can book, make changes to
the reservation and message the Airbnb host
with any questions.
What about Airbnb’s biggest partnership to
date with Concur?
In addition to working with Concur to help
companies using Airbnb to manage travel
and track expenses through TripLink, Concur
will soon incorporate Airbnb listings into their
search and booking tool. All of our efforts are
paying off. 18,000 companies are signing up
and booking with the Airbnb for Work program
per month
ITB BERLIN NEWS • Wednesday 21 st March 2018
www.itb-berlin-news.com