A Study on the Travel Preferences of Millennials in the City of Manila for Post-Pandemic Domestic Travel

Abstract

Millennials are people born from 1980-2000 who are known for their distinct travel preferences compared to other generations. Consequently, recreational, cultural, social, and nature tourism are amongst the most established and present types of tourism in the Philippines. Hence, this study aims to learn where millennials in the city of Manila would prefer to travel domestically in the post-pandemic setting. To further elaborate the results, the researchers attempt to understand the reasons behind the preferences of the millennials by utilizing Dr. Seppo Iso-Aloha’s Social Psychology Model of Tourism that categorizes motivational forces into four parts namely: Seeking Personal Rewards (SPR), Seeking Interpersonal Rewards (SIR), Escaping Personal Environments (EPE), and Escaping Interpersonal Environments (EIE). The results showed that the top 3 preferred tourism destinations by millennials in the city of Manila are “water activities site”, “physical activities on land”, and “resort spa”. The said tourist destinations fall under nature and recreational tourism destinations. On the other hand, tourism destinations that require more interaction such as “architectural/ historical monument”, “conservation area”, and “ethnic village” are less preferred by millennials in the city of Manila for post-pandemic travel that may be due to the by-product of the pandemic and the millennials’ post-pandemic travel priorities. When asked about the respondents’ reason behind travel, “relaxing or resting” had the highest average weighted mean, while “being away from family/ friends” had the lowest. This may be due to the respondents’ desire to destress after being in lockdown and the challenges of daily life in the pandemic. However, the respondents would still like to travel intimately with family and friends. Other travel motivational that were mentioned fell under the significant and very significant range, showing the millennials’ pent-up desire to travel in a post-pandemic setting.

Keywords: Millennials, Travel Preferences, Travel Motivation, Post-Pandemic Travel, Types of Tourism, Social Psychology Model of Tourism

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