Millennials good news for savvy travel companies

In recent weeks, it’s been quite the tale of doom and gloom for millennials, those born between 1981-2000. They have been blamed for a catalogue of ills, from the dwindling reach of traditional media and the shunning of big business products and office spaces, to the demise of the traditional summer ‘party holiday’.

Yet not all travel businesses have suffered due to millennial’s changing tastes. In fact, some travel companies have positively flourished, particularly those businesses such as Click&Boat that allow for spontaneous experiences or offer a steady flow of outstanding instagrammable photo opportunities.

Created in 2013 by two young French entrepreneurs Edouard Gorioux and Jérémy Bismuth, who are themselves millennials, the innovative website allows boat owners to hire out yachts when not in use, quickly and conveniently. This means it is often up to 30% cheaper for travelers to hire a boat on this peer-to-peer platform versus a traditional yacht charter company. Nicknamed the “Airbnb of the seas”, boats can be hired from as little as £49 a day on the site and can be booked online at a time convenient to the renter – something that millennials using the service have shared is hugely appealing.

At present, 40% of Click&Boat’s global users are millennials, the largest age demographic for bookings. With 22,000+ boats for rent in 35 countries, the generation whose lives are often catalogued online seem to have taken to the variety and ease of destinations they can travel to via Click&Boat. The company’s own data shows that UK millennial travelers are using the website to book ever more off-the-beaten track weekends away, traveling to hotspots that are better enjoyed or can only be reached by boat, such as cruising along the Adriatic to discover Croatian islands or Greek island-hopping – perfect locations for the most stunning summer selfies.

Edouard Gorioux, co-founder of Click&Boat explains: “Click&Boat was set up by millennials, so we naturally understand what is important to our peers. We are young, entrepreneurial and agile, and our website is true to these qualities. We love sailing, but like many other industries that have been disrupted by millennials, sailing needed to change with the times.

Click&Boat makes sailing more relevant to those travelers used to being able to book online and access holidays and experiences quickly and easily. We think we’re definitely tapping into a new way of travelling, with 110% growth in users globally in the last year. Without a doubt, in the UK and internationally, millennials are really helping drive our growth.”