PROSPECTS FOR A TOURISM ECONOMY
Parks try to woo Gen X's families
By Todd Pack | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 2, 2002
Generation Xers, branded as cynical, unfocused slackers when they came of age in the '90s, have new labels now: Mom and Dad.
This breed of family, with different expectations and more choices than ever, is forcing Central Florida's $20.9 billion tourism industry to rethink everything about how it does business. And it's not just about the kinds of rides it builds -- it's how to get people here in the first place.
"Generation X is very different [from boomers]," said Ann Fishman, a New Orleans-based generational-marketing consultant. "If you treat them as young boomers, you won't get them."
To be sure, there's opportunity for the region's tourist industry if it can figure out how to entice Gen Xers to the land of Mickey Mouse.
This generation of parents, many of them latchkey children who saw their own parents divorce, is less willing to let work interfere with family and more inclined to take spouses and children -- and even their own parents -- on business trips.
But grabbing these family travelers may be difficult because there is precious little research on them. Central Florida tourism officials have examined other trends -- such as grandparent travel -- but generally haven't looked at differences in attitude from one generation to the next.
"The more you know about your customer, the better it is," said Kelly Repass, the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau's director of research. But she acknowledged the bureau doesn't take a microscopic view of its core audience, which is families.
Neither does Walt Disney World, which has been the heart of Central Florida's tourism economy since the Magic Kingdom opened 30 years ago.
"We know that each generation has its own thing," said Linda Warren, Disney World's executive vice president of marketing and brand management. But no matter their age, "parents want to give their children great experiences."
Others disagree, saying generational differences will determine not only where people take vacation, but where they stay and what they do.
Generational marketing is all about nuances, Fishman said. "If you miss a nuance, it fails. If you miss a nuance, you miss business."
Rising costs, short attention
Orlando's theme parks say it's increasingly difficult to plan new attractions because of rising costs and tourists' shrinking attention spans. But just as challenging is getting this new generation of family to visit Orlando at all.
The numbers tell the story of shifting demographics. Since infancy, Generation X has been overshadowed by the boomers, those 76.8 million people born in the two decades after World War II.
Generation X, today between ages 26 and 37, numbers just 45 million.
But such details only begin to tell the story.
Xers, and young boomers, have a different frame of reference. Baby boomers, the first generation to grow up with television, remember the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show; Xers watched Nirvana on MTV.
Understanding such yardsticks will be crucial if advertisers hope to ever get through to young parents, Fishman said.
A case in point is those seemingly ubiquitous commercials for Disney World's 100 Years of Magic, commemorating the centennial birthday of company patriarch Walt Disney.
Fishman said the campaign is good-looking but often misses the generational mark, as happens in a 30-second commercial showing an auditorium full of grown-ups at a grade-school spelling bee. When a girl begins spelling the word microphone, she gets as far as "M-I-C" before the adults interrupt her to sing The Mickey Mouse Club theme song.
In the real world, many parents with children as young as those in the commercial are likely to be in their late 20s and 30s. But in the commercial, most of the adults appear much older -- too much older, in Fishman's opinion.
"It's a rather unflattering group of baby boomers," the marketing consultant said.
David Stillman, a Minneapolis-based marketing consultant and author of When Generations Collide, said Disney's campaign, with its images of Mickey Mouse and families, cuts across generational lines.
But unlike current TV spots for Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, he said, the Disney spots neglect to show Generation X parents.
"Disney's lucky in that it has a classic, nostalgic message," he said. But "if they really want a home run, they should go a little further."
Childhood differences
But nailing such pop-cultural nuances is easy compared with grasping the differences in how Xers think, Fishman said, and those differences are rooted in their childhoods.
Previous generations of children in the United States had both parents at home. But during the years when Xers were children, the divorce rate in the United States doubled, from 10.6 divorces per 1,000 married women in 1965 to 22.6 by 1980. The percentage of children younger than 18 living with single parents climbed from 9.8 percent in 1965 to 18.9 percent in 1980.
Such changes have influenced the entire generation, not just those with divorced parents, said Stillman, a partner in BridgeWorks, a generational-marketing firm.
"We saw [it happen to] enough people around us," he said. "We're going to create the homes we never had."
Peter Yesawich, president of Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown, an Orlando tourism-consulting and marketing firm, said this craving for family time has been even greater since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which could help Orlando as families look for getaways to spend time together.
Central Florida's tourist economy could also benefit from changing attitudes toward work, Yesawich said. Young parents today generally aren't as focused on their careers as their parents were at the same age, he said.
"The younger generation places a bigger value on leisure and family," Yesawich said. "Their reward for work is family time. That's their scorecard."
Stillman, a 33-year-old father of two, agrees. "With the boomers, it was about quality time. 'If I can just get in that 15 minutes, that's good enough.' But I think Gen Xers are flopping that equation," he said.
Stillman said Xer parents think "quality time belongs at the office. Quantity time, that belongs at home."
And on the road.
About 13 percent of business travelers who combined a business trip with pleasure took their spouse and children along on a business trip in 2001, up from 11 percent the year before, according to a recent Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown survey. On top of that, 7 percent reporting taking only their children.
It's unclear from the survey how many of those travelers were in their 20s and 30s.
But regardless of age, such a thing was practically unheard-of a generation ago.
Stillman, for example, said he left his wife and toddler son at home but brought his daughter with him on a speaking trip to Orlando in January so they could celebrate her fifth birthday at the Magic Kingdom. His only frustration: older travelers who kept saying it was unusual to see a girl traveling alone with her father.
But it isn't just their spouses and children. Generation X parents increasingly are going on trips with their parents.
Twenty-seven percent of parents surveyed by Yesawich's firm reported taking grandparents on a family trip in 2001, up from 21 percent two years earlier.
Mark Stevens, a surgical-company sales representative, guesses he has taken five or 10 trips with his mother and wife and sons.
"Once a year, we'll get together and do a trip," said Stevens, 38, who lives in Charlotte, N.C.
And research by the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau shows that the city is No. 1 on the list of places grandparents want to take their grandchildren. This year, Stevens' mother is organizing a family trip to Disney World during Memorial Day weekend.
Judy Randall, a travel-marketing consultant based in Mooresville, N.C., near Charlotte, said the growing trend of grandparents traveling with their children and grandchildren is partly health-related. Grandparents today are better able to travel than grandparents were a generation ago.
But it's also economic, she said. Grandparents "have the money, and they want to have fun."
Census data shows that householders in the 45- to 54-year-old demographic had median incomes of $56,917 a year; in the 55- to 64-year-old age group, $44,597. But householders between ages 25 and 34, the group that closely mirrors Generation X, had incomes of just $42,174.
Tourist economy has pitfalls
Orlando's knack for appealing to all ages is a big reason it should continue to prove popular with families, Yesawich said. But the region can't afford to take anything for granted, he added.
Last year's recession and September's terrorist attacks showed that Central Florida's tourist economy isn't foolproof.
Business at most Orlando theme parks fell considerably. Orlando-area hotel occupancy was down 14.6 percent in January, the last month for which complete figures are available.
Business is expected to return as the economy improves and travelers get over their newfound fear of flying. But once people start traveling again, there's no guarantee they'll come to Orlando.
Indeed, Yesawich's survey on family travel found that 79 percent of those parents wanted to take their children on scenic vacations, while just 64 percent rated theme-park visits as extremely or very desirable.
Making small changes
Still, many in the hospitality industry already are doing more to reach this new generation of family travelers.
Some changes are small, such as pointing parents to the Internet, said Fred Lounsberry, senior vice president of sales for Universal Studios Recreation Group, which includes Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.
"Gen Xers certainly have more information at their fingertips than they ever have before," he said.
Meanwhile, some hotels, including Loews' two properties at Universal Orlando, are offering suites designed just for families, oversize rooms with alternatives to the usual pair of double beds.
Kids' suites at Loews Hotels' Universal hotels are about 50 percent larger than a standard room, said Michael Sansbury, Loews' regional vice president. The suites have sleeping areas just for children, decorated in a child- or teen-friendly style and furnished with either a bunk bed or two twins.
"It just gives families a little extra space without them having to buy two full rooms," Sansbury said.
And though Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee is officially a convention hotel, amenities include a children's day camp run by La Petite Academy.
When the Joint Cancer Conference of the Florida Universities had a reception as part of its annual meeting in January at the hotel, La Petite organized a children's party in the adjacent ballroom, said Mark Pitstick, La Petite's general manager for convention child care.
Only a few years ago, parents probably would have hired a sitter, he said, but throughout the night, "parents could stroll in and check on their kids."
Busch Entertainment Corp. of St. Louis, parent of SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, adjusted its advertising about a year ago to reflect changes in attitude among family travelers, said Michael LaBroad, senior vice president for marketing.
"We've gone from, 'Here's what you'll find [at the park]' to 'Here's how you'll feel,' " he said. One commercial for SeaWorld shows young children, and their young-looking parents, at the park, with a single question superimposed over the action: "When was the last time your kids got this close . . . to a dolphin . . . a polar bear . . . or you?"
Warren, the Disney marketing vice president, said emotional ads should draw families to Orlando regardless of the parents' age. "It's just the feeling you get when you come here with your children that's important."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ - links on the main page.
Parks try to woo Gen X's families
By Todd Pack | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted April 2, 2002
Generation Xers, branded as cynical, unfocused slackers when they came of age in the '90s, have new labels now: Mom and Dad.
This breed of family, with different expectations and more choices than ever, is forcing Central Florida's $20.9 billion tourism industry to rethink everything about how it does business. And it's not just about the kinds of rides it builds -- it's how to get people here in the first place.
"Generation X is very different [from boomers]," said Ann Fishman, a New Orleans-based generational-marketing consultant. "If you treat them as young boomers, you won't get them."
To be sure, there's opportunity for the region's tourist industry if it can figure out how to entice Gen Xers to the land of Mickey Mouse.
This generation of parents, many of them latchkey children who saw their own parents divorce, is less willing to let work interfere with family and more inclined to take spouses and children -- and even their own parents -- on business trips.
But grabbing these family travelers may be difficult because there is precious little research on them. Central Florida tourism officials have examined other trends -- such as grandparent travel -- but generally haven't looked at differences in attitude from one generation to the next.
"The more you know about your customer, the better it is," said Kelly Repass, the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau's director of research. But she acknowledged the bureau doesn't take a microscopic view of its core audience, which is families.
Neither does Walt Disney World, which has been the heart of Central Florida's tourism economy since the Magic Kingdom opened 30 years ago.
"We know that each generation has its own thing," said Linda Warren, Disney World's executive vice president of marketing and brand management. But no matter their age, "parents want to give their children great experiences."
Others disagree, saying generational differences will determine not only where people take vacation, but where they stay and what they do.
Generational marketing is all about nuances, Fishman said. "If you miss a nuance, it fails. If you miss a nuance, you miss business."
Rising costs, short attention
Orlando's theme parks say it's increasingly difficult to plan new attractions because of rising costs and tourists' shrinking attention spans. But just as challenging is getting this new generation of family to visit Orlando at all.
The numbers tell the story of shifting demographics. Since infancy, Generation X has been overshadowed by the boomers, those 76.8 million people born in the two decades after World War II.
Generation X, today between ages 26 and 37, numbers just 45 million.
But such details only begin to tell the story.
Xers, and young boomers, have a different frame of reference. Baby boomers, the first generation to grow up with television, remember the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show; Xers watched Nirvana on MTV.
Understanding such yardsticks will be crucial if advertisers hope to ever get through to young parents, Fishman said.
A case in point is those seemingly ubiquitous commercials for Disney World's 100 Years of Magic, commemorating the centennial birthday of company patriarch Walt Disney.
Fishman said the campaign is good-looking but often misses the generational mark, as happens in a 30-second commercial showing an auditorium full of grown-ups at a grade-school spelling bee. When a girl begins spelling the word microphone, she gets as far as "M-I-C" before the adults interrupt her to sing The Mickey Mouse Club theme song.
In the real world, many parents with children as young as those in the commercial are likely to be in their late 20s and 30s. But in the commercial, most of the adults appear much older -- too much older, in Fishman's opinion.
"It's a rather unflattering group of baby boomers," the marketing consultant said.
David Stillman, a Minneapolis-based marketing consultant and author of When Generations Collide, said Disney's campaign, with its images of Mickey Mouse and families, cuts across generational lines.
But unlike current TV spots for Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando, he said, the Disney spots neglect to show Generation X parents.
"Disney's lucky in that it has a classic, nostalgic message," he said. But "if they really want a home run, they should go a little further."
Childhood differences
But nailing such pop-cultural nuances is easy compared with grasping the differences in how Xers think, Fishman said, and those differences are rooted in their childhoods.
Previous generations of children in the United States had both parents at home. But during the years when Xers were children, the divorce rate in the United States doubled, from 10.6 divorces per 1,000 married women in 1965 to 22.6 by 1980. The percentage of children younger than 18 living with single parents climbed from 9.8 percent in 1965 to 18.9 percent in 1980.
Such changes have influenced the entire generation, not just those with divorced parents, said Stillman, a partner in BridgeWorks, a generational-marketing firm.
"We saw [it happen to] enough people around us," he said. "We're going to create the homes we never had."
Peter Yesawich, president of Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown, an Orlando tourism-consulting and marketing firm, said this craving for family time has been even greater since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which could help Orlando as families look for getaways to spend time together.
Central Florida's tourist economy could also benefit from changing attitudes toward work, Yesawich said. Young parents today generally aren't as focused on their careers as their parents were at the same age, he said.
"The younger generation places a bigger value on leisure and family," Yesawich said. "Their reward for work is family time. That's their scorecard."
Stillman, a 33-year-old father of two, agrees. "With the boomers, it was about quality time. 'If I can just get in that 15 minutes, that's good enough.' But I think Gen Xers are flopping that equation," he said.
Stillman said Xer parents think "quality time belongs at the office. Quantity time, that belongs at home."
And on the road.
About 13 percent of business travelers who combined a business trip with pleasure took their spouse and children along on a business trip in 2001, up from 11 percent the year before, according to a recent Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown survey. On top of that, 7 percent reporting taking only their children.
It's unclear from the survey how many of those travelers were in their 20s and 30s.
But regardless of age, such a thing was practically unheard-of a generation ago.
Stillman, for example, said he left his wife and toddler son at home but brought his daughter with him on a speaking trip to Orlando in January so they could celebrate her fifth birthday at the Magic Kingdom. His only frustration: older travelers who kept saying it was unusual to see a girl traveling alone with her father.
But it isn't just their spouses and children. Generation X parents increasingly are going on trips with their parents.
Twenty-seven percent of parents surveyed by Yesawich's firm reported taking grandparents on a family trip in 2001, up from 21 percent two years earlier.
Mark Stevens, a surgical-company sales representative, guesses he has taken five or 10 trips with his mother and wife and sons.
"Once a year, we'll get together and do a trip," said Stevens, 38, who lives in Charlotte, N.C.
And research by the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau shows that the city is No. 1 on the list of places grandparents want to take their grandchildren. This year, Stevens' mother is organizing a family trip to Disney World during Memorial Day weekend.
Judy Randall, a travel-marketing consultant based in Mooresville, N.C., near Charlotte, said the growing trend of grandparents traveling with their children and grandchildren is partly health-related. Grandparents today are better able to travel than grandparents were a generation ago.
But it's also economic, she said. Grandparents "have the money, and they want to have fun."
Census data shows that householders in the 45- to 54-year-old demographic had median incomes of $56,917 a year; in the 55- to 64-year-old age group, $44,597. But householders between ages 25 and 34, the group that closely mirrors Generation X, had incomes of just $42,174.
Tourist economy has pitfalls
Orlando's knack for appealing to all ages is a big reason it should continue to prove popular with families, Yesawich said. But the region can't afford to take anything for granted, he added.
Last year's recession and September's terrorist attacks showed that Central Florida's tourist economy isn't foolproof.
Business at most Orlando theme parks fell considerably. Orlando-area hotel occupancy was down 14.6 percent in January, the last month for which complete figures are available.
Business is expected to return as the economy improves and travelers get over their newfound fear of flying. But once people start traveling again, there's no guarantee they'll come to Orlando.
Indeed, Yesawich's survey on family travel found that 79 percent of those parents wanted to take their children on scenic vacations, while just 64 percent rated theme-park visits as extremely or very desirable.
Making small changes
Still, many in the hospitality industry already are doing more to reach this new generation of family travelers.
Some changes are small, such as pointing parents to the Internet, said Fred Lounsberry, senior vice president of sales for Universal Studios Recreation Group, which includes Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure.
"Gen Xers certainly have more information at their fingertips than they ever have before," he said.
Meanwhile, some hotels, including Loews' two properties at Universal Orlando, are offering suites designed just for families, oversize rooms with alternatives to the usual pair of double beds.
Kids' suites at Loews Hotels' Universal hotels are about 50 percent larger than a standard room, said Michael Sansbury, Loews' regional vice president. The suites have sleeping areas just for children, decorated in a child- or teen-friendly style and furnished with either a bunk bed or two twins.
"It just gives families a little extra space without them having to buy two full rooms," Sansbury said.
And though Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee is officially a convention hotel, amenities include a children's day camp run by La Petite Academy.
When the Joint Cancer Conference of the Florida Universities had a reception as part of its annual meeting in January at the hotel, La Petite organized a children's party in the adjacent ballroom, said Mark Pitstick, La Petite's general manager for convention child care.
Only a few years ago, parents probably would have hired a sitter, he said, but throughout the night, "parents could stroll in and check on their kids."
Busch Entertainment Corp. of St. Louis, parent of SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, adjusted its advertising about a year ago to reflect changes in attitude among family travelers, said Michael LaBroad, senior vice president for marketing.
"We've gone from, 'Here's what you'll find [at the park]' to 'Here's how you'll feel,' " he said. One commercial for SeaWorld shows young children, and their young-looking parents, at the park, with a single question superimposed over the action: "When was the last time your kids got this close . . . to a dolphin . . . a polar bear . . . or you?"
Warren, the Disney marketing vice president, said emotional ads should draw families to Orlando regardless of the parents' age. "It's just the feeling you get when you come here with your children that's important."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/ - links on the main page.
