United Airlines is gearing up for its biggest spring break ever and in so doing, has noticed a new booking trend: Gen Z travelers are venturing out beyond traditional spring break destinations like the beaches of Florida or Mexico more than ever before.
Untied Airlines: Gen Z Looking Beyond Beaches For Spring Break
Yesterday I wrote about how Miami Beach is anxious to keep “bad” tourists away, typically college-aged youth who come to South Beach for revelry and debauchery. Analytics from United Airlines suggest that may be less of a problem this year.
United Airlines told Live And Let’s Fly that “Gen Z is taking Spring Break worldwide” and provided the following stats:
- More than 30% of travelers aged 18-26 are heading to an international destination for Spring Break this year, up 32% compared to 2019
- This year, Tokyo returns to one of the top 25 Gen Z spring break destinations for the first time since 2019
- London continues to see steady year-over-year increases in Gen Z spring break travelers
- This year, nearly the same number of Gen Z Spring Breakers will travel to London that are traveling to Fort Lauderdale
Even so, many travelers will still be flocking to warm-weather cities:
- Orlando, Cancun, and Las Vegas are the top three most-booked Spring Break destinations this year
- These are the same top three destinations United saw last year, but “slightly more” people are opting to visit Cancun this year versus in 2023
Furthermore, United estimates that spring break 2024 to be its busiest ever:
- United expects its busiest-ever spring break on record with more than 21 million passengers expected to fly over spring break, up nearly 10% compared to last year
- More than 200,000 people will fly United per day on average during the spring break period, (~15,000 more people flying per day than last year)
- The busiest travel day is estimated to be on Friday, March 22 when United expects to carry more than 500,000 passengers.
- Easter Week, which United labels the week of March 25th, will be the busiest travel week, with about 480,000 people flying every day on average.
United defines the spring break period between March 8 – April 21, 2024.
> Read More: Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break, Warning Tourists
Finally, remember that United offers a 5% discount on economy class tickets to adults between the age of 18-23.
CONCLUSION
I’m quite happy to see that more Gen Z travelers are looking beyond traditional beach destinations for spring break. Spring is a lovely time to visit places like London, Munich, Milan, Auckland, Sydney, or Amman (all served by United). Perhaps as more Gen Z travelers explore the world, there will be less trouble for residents of Miami Beach and other traditional spring break hotspots.
image: United Airlines
When you consider that domestic ticket prices to warm destination often exceed $800+ a person from some markets in economy, you night as well spend a couple hundred more and go overseas. Plus hotels in Europe usually have many more budget friendly options like hostels and express hotels, apartments, etc. Miami and S. Florida price gouges hotels, food, etc. during springbreak and has become over crowded So for similar prices why not go overseas and have better and safer time.
I agree that price has a lot to do with it. It can be cheaper to spend a week in the South of France, Spain, Portugal or Italy than to go to a nice US beach. Certainly has changed my vacation thinking. Add on to that the post-Covid ability to work remotely while traveling, and I think that explains why younger people travel more overseas.
Oh goody. The least obnoxious people in America will now be traveling to more places. Can’t wait.
LOL!
May thoughts exactly. Let these foreign cities deal with them. How many will learn the hard way that they are under host country laws and not the US.
GenZ Traveller: “But my CBD oils and gummies are for my anxiety! You are triggering me!”
Customs Agent (Singapore, Japan, UAE): “Come with us.”
Let’s hope they vote in November with the same passion they have for travel.
The boomer energy is strong in these comments
Yes, yes, and that other disturbance in the force is GenX.
To heck with these gen Z. Go to a Middle East country, or South America folks…..see how you’re accepted down there.
Hummm never seen again, do t know why?
A bit of insight from a 20 year old Gen Z. There’s 2 dynamics at play causing this. First, zoomers are unique compared to other generations at this age group since a very large portion of us are socially conservative. Data showing the percentage of adults gen z who don’t use alcohol or drugs proves this. I’m not saying all of gen z is like this just that there’s far more who are than previous generations at this age. For many of us there’s no appeal to destinations like Cancun or Fort Lauderdale since we’re not interested in partying or drinking and the like. There’s a lot of appeal for destinations like Japan or London for myself and many of my friends since we’re more interested in things like museums, skiing, restaurants, and fashion. Second, social media has given us travel inspiration from a relatively early age. I don’t think I’d have as much of an interest in world travel if it weren’t for people sharing their own experiences on YouTube or Instagram. It also causes Gen Z to want to share their own experiences in unique places like Korea or Thailand which inspires us to travel to far away places in a way that other generations simply didn’t have.
From another Gen Zer – don’t give the boomers all of these insights, let them think we’re just party animals that are terrible for society
Kidding aside, this resonates across the board
Thanks Ted. Your explanation is spot on. Wishing you many great travel experiences ahead.
Your generation is known for being more liberal, not less. Especially on social issues. And regarding you not drinking or using drugs, You’re not even old enough to legally drink in the US yet, so let’s take your opinions seriously once your frontal cortex is fully developed.
It’s a cold hard fact: both alcohol and drug uptake among Gen Z is lower than past generations at this age
But that wouldn’t be funny and let people dunk on Gen Z, so instead we have this silly comment section
I believe you confuse the common meaning of “socially conservative” with “less likely to ‘party'”.
UA airfares the first week of April are almost double B6.
JFK-MCO on B6 is $300-ish while LGA-MCO on UA (with a stop, obviously) is almost $600.
UA is almost double Southwest too. I’m 1K on UA. The 4 segments would help requalifying but screw them. I went with Southwest.
Matthew, I thought you were an Episcopalian…… please note that Easter Week begins on Easter Day, not March 25th. The week before Easter is Holy Week.
I fully concur – I was just using United’s language.
Blessings to you during this time of Eastertide.
How do they afford it?
When I was in college I had to stick around for my job.
I’d love to see the statistics on how many Gen Z hold status, and of those what kind of status do they hold. I doubt there is many gen Z out there that also hold 1K like me.
Munich as a Spring Break destination?!?!?!? Seriously? Spring won’t arrive there until probably mid-May to early June. And, yes, I realize not everyone is the same, but to most college kids, spring break is about fun in the sun. And that doesn’t have to mean debauchery. It can mean Daytona and Disney. Or Cancun and Cozumel. I know you were just listing foreign destinations, but as someone who lives in both South Florida and Bavaria, I know which one I wouldn’t want to be in during March or April. It also snows almost every Easter in one of those places … you guess which.
“United defines the spring break period between March 8 – April 21, 2024.”—- I’ll be staying home during that period.
Spring break for my group meant getting into our 6 year old Buick Electra 225 and driving from Boston to Florida – flying to Tokyo, Mexico or Orlando was out of our budget. Of course, we remembered that we had to pay off our student loans.
’89 Toyota Corolla to St. Louis, here. Watched a Blues game, drank a few, and then back to classes. Paid off those loans, too. It took a while, and I went without some extras in my young adult life, but the benefits of that education have made those extras accessible. Good luck to those GenZ’ers who are going to spend more time looking at themselves on their phones than experiencing the destinations ‘authentically’ in real life. Good on UA too, for some DIY ‘influencing’.
“Gen Z”?
Using stupid labels reveals that you’re stupid.
I’m surprised that gen z kids have any money to travel because they seem to spend it all on giant lattes and avocado toast.