Smart destinations for smart Generation? – The requirements of Generation Y in the area of innovative communication

Abstract

Social media and mobile-marketing all among the most challenging trends the tourism destinations facing with, particularly in the area of reaching the so called smart or Internet Generation, the tourists from the Generation Y. However the most innovative destinations’ objective is to implement SoCoMo (Social-context-based – mobile marketing), the main question is whether the members of the Generation Y need these kind of approaches. Generation Y is considered as the most technology savvy Generation, whose members are conscious consumers with well-defined, high needs regarding quality, and price/value ratio, and as sharing their most important life-events on several social media channels with their peers, Web.2.0. is crucial for them as a channel for communication and co-creation. The main dilemma is whether this opened Generation with an advanced technology-using habits would need “smart” solutions and “smart destinations” based on social-mobile marketing, and highly personalized services? The main objective of the paper is to introduce the results of a quantitative research with more than 430 answers from 45 countries from the members of Generation Y regarding their needs, limits in the area of highly innovative communication and product-development questions.