Gen Y and Tourism - Research Proposal Example

Gen Y and Tourism Your name Course name Course Instructor Date of Submission Contents Contents 1 1.Abstract 2 2.Introduction 3 3.Literature Review 4 3.1.Technological Advancements 4 3.2.Globalization 5 3.3.Culture 5 3.4.Flexibility 6 3.5.Challenges 7 3.6.Disposable Income 7 3.7.Opportunities 8 4.Research Question 8 5.Methodology 8 5.1. Tools for Data Collection 9 6.Analysis 10 7.Conclusion 11 8.References 12 Business Research Proposal Student’s name: Student’s e-mail: 1. Abstract Like other developed nations in the world, Australia has vibrant Generation Y youths who are accounting to more than forty percent of the countries population. Owing to high GDP and as a result of the disposable incomes, nearly seventy percent of the Generation Y in Australia is confirmed to have spent most of their time away from their country. Further, sixty five percent are also identified to be having intentions and ideas of spending time outside Australia in future. This information is brought forward after a survey conducted by the STA Travel which Australia is leading advisor for students and youths travelling outside the country. Moreover, the same study indicated that over 25 percent of the ones surveyed took at least a gap per year between work and graduation while the other 40 percent are hopeful of taking a year gap in course of their career. The study seems to be exploring travelling intentions of Generation Y in Australia particularly, the motivations seen towards travel and tourism with perceived travelling barriers. Generation Y and Tourism 2. Introduction Travel is defined as an integral part of career path for most of the Australian Generation Y. The group is particularly brought up in a certain environment whereby everyone uses global sense to think. Research shows that, most of the youth in the country who just finished school tend to move out of the country for they are afraid of settling down to their local environment, therefore, they seek to explore and venture into activities and opportunities which are available outside there comfort zone, in these case, they are found overseas (Tulgan, 2004). According to research, there is the fact whereby, the young people have most of there time for themselves after clearing school, furthermore, they have very few or at time no commitment that may tie them up and down. This may lead to boredom and as the result; they opt to travel or visit different parts of the world (Solnet & Hood, 2008). As much as it seems to be disguising under the generations need to learn and adventure about the universe and explore, they are also aware of the possibility of them acquiring jobs away from Australia thus, they will not seek employment in the country for they discover and access opportunities in new places after visiting (Eisner, 2005). On the other hand, Generations Y found in different countries such as Asia, UK and United States are highly motivated to work from home in their cities; the population in Australia always ought to look for jobs outside their cities. However, it is identified that the culture of travelling outside Australia may have been natured at a very early age for the country still has one of highest numbers of the visitors travelling to other countries. Many young people are always identified to be having adventurous nerve which makes them to ensure they travel as a way of satisfying curiosity that they have on whether they can have a chance of survival away from their comfort zone and out of Australia (Hill, 2002). 3. Literature Review According to Barling & Loughlin (2001), travel and tourism industry have rapidly developed globally in recent years which means that there are more people who are travelling outside their nations. This is credited to some changes in a society that is motivating the generations of young people in travelling more. 3.1. Technological Advancements It is always revealed that the advancements in the technology which have specifically opened up the worlds whereby people gain information access on different parts in the world. It has made it simpler for the youth to travel to different parts of worlds in a very cheap way and very fast. With the increase in literacy and education, the world’s population has been yearning for more thus making people to travel when searching for more knowledge. This is seen in the case whereby, people do travel to different parts in the world away from their home countries looking for quality education in other countries. Generally, most of the people who do this are the young who are also known as Generation Y. 3.2. Globalization It is noted that, globalization opened up countries and broke down boarders countries nations that are thought to be far off thus making the population in the world to be more open and live outside their comfort zones. As Hill (2002) asserts, the young or Generation Y are discovering the exciting and lucrative chances or opportunities in other countries whereby, they choose to pursue them. The communication advancements are primarily accountable and are responsible for globalization that is evident since people are comfortably visiting or even live in other countries but still communicate with friends and family normally. This narrows the distance thus reducing home sickness. The time that is taken and the prices which are charged when travelling is also reduced significantly over years, perhaps, the reason why more people fly as compared to the last century means of transport. 3.3. Culture According to Richardson, (2010), there is integration of cultures whereby, people co-exist in different countries with differing cultures and they seem to be comfortable. This is due to the migration and travel of the Generation Y with growth and development of mega cities that are being inhabited by people from several and different backgrounds and cultures. It is also well known that the access to the information that people found out about the opportunities in other countries identified to be lucrative. Economies liberation also contributed to the need to work and travel in many different countries as many different countries as most of the companies are setting up their offices in many different countries seeking to exploit global market. It then led to the urge of moving to other countries since the resources in one’s country may be scarce. When referring to tourism, some of the interesting parts in the world are well known thus compelling more people in travelling to see them. With growth in many worlds economy, most of the people in developed countries are able to secure plane tickets with a tourist Visa. This is especially seen in young population which was previously identified having no disposable income and affording very expensive means of transportation. 3.4. Flexibility According to Maxwell et al. (2007), the most of Generation Y individuals are generally concerned about their flexibility in Jobs; however, they do not identify the jobs with life approach compared to previous generations who valued life. They were forced to identify jobs which exposed them to more experiences e.g. travelling more so outside the country. Generation Y are also known as a very independent Generation which grew up with a single parent or the working parents who abandoned them for better part of the day by themselves. The need for independence is then dragged on to their future life whereby, they seek thrilling adventure and experiences which are outside their normal lives. This will often push them and ensure that they travel to other nations either to stay or visit. Most of Generation Y youths in Australia are identified to be spending some of their time outside the country due to the pressure of exploration and other aspects of life other than the one they are used to for them to satisfy their need for adventure and independence. 3.5. Challenges According to the fact that Generation Y has grown up in quick solutions era and due to the technological advancements and time when we have excessive information available, they became impatient and seek to enjoy and live for the moment (Streeter, 2004). Nonetheless, the older generations would then reserve most of their travel plans in most parts of the world until when they retire and earning a pension, the particular generation seeks to travel and experience the world when they are still youths instead of waiting. Hood & Solnet (2008) assert that while other people identify the need for quick solutions and also live the moment due to the technological advancements especially when communicating, as being responsible for the lazy population, this may not further from the truth for the generation has been identified to be seeking new innovations and solutions to technical problems at work or in life. The need to travel outside the comfort zone is for some reasons known well as need to be exploring new challenges in different environments. This is the reason why Generation Y does not seek to work, live, or just spent their holidays in their own countries; rather, they prefer different countries which will provide them with different or mixed experiences. 3.6. Disposable Income According to Pokrywczynski & Wolburg (2001), most of the Generation Y has travelled outside their nations. This proves that they are always seeking to work, live and spend their holidays in different countries. However, it does not mean that it has been easy for them. This is because, they have to adhere and contend with the normal travel risks as well as travelling costs. The latter is especially of a very great importance for the generation since, most of them don’t have jobs and they are not many of them who saved enough money to finance a life in another country for couple of months. Their reprieve, however, lies with the fact that older generation which in this case are their parents, did cultivate a saving culture of saving up for kids and are also co-operative when it concerns wild dreams of the generation. 3.7. Opportunities On the other hand, exploitation of opportunities tends to push Generation Y in Australia to travel to other countries thinking that they may be credited. This doesn’t mean that competition in Australia is minimal when it comes to global market (Eisner, 2005). The increase in the number of people who are moving all over the world means that the ones seeking to live and work in other the countries are supposed to come up with the creative ways of procuring such opportunities, nevertheless, the generation is known for the creativity and identifying solutions in situations such as these. 4. Research Question What is Generation Y’s perception towards tourism and travel in Australia? What has motivated the need of Generation Y to work or visit foreign countries? What are the obstacles encountered by Generation Y when choosing to work or visit in foreign countries. 4.1. Hypotheses In Australia, Generation Y is highly inspired to work in foreign countries than at home after they have accomplished their undergraduate education. Generation Y does not recognize any obstacles in their quest to travel out of Australia regardless of whether it is for holiday or to pursue their profession. 5. Methodology This study is aimed t analyzing and discussing the perceptions of the Australian youth, which differ from those of other youths across the globe and it make use of online and postal questionnaire surveys as means of data collection. Online surveys are more preferred than postal questionnaire surveys due to the fact that they are more efficient, convenient, fast, has downloadable response to queries, it is technology based, it is unlimited in content access, and seeks a response to every question. It has been proved that respondents (mainly youths) are technology savvy thus, the choice of online surveys being the better option (Richardson, 2010). The collected data (in form of answers to the questions asked) is transferred to statistical packages and then analyzed. There is use of mail surveys to complete the data collection procedure where the online survey cannot yield responses. 5.1. Tools for Data Collection The use of questionnaires has been adopted by many researchers in the field of tourism and travel as the major instruments of data collection. Same tool is applied in this study and the questionnaires are divided into three categories. The three categories include demographic information which doesn’t need respondent’s personal information like age. A verge that gives the idea of a certain age bracket without being categorical is offered. A group that needs the provision historical data is the second category. It mainly consists of the number of times that an individual travelled abroad or outside the province in addition to the nature of travel in regard to work or holiday. The third category- which is the main body of the questionnaire- has got questions that will help to answer research questions. The choice of using a questionnaire is mainly based on the need to identify the particular opinions of the Generation Y on tourism and travel in regard to their experiences, their motivation to travel and the barriers or challenges they identify exist in the tourism industry. This provides information that is rich in actual practical experiences, rather that particular theories on what industry players think may be the perception of Generation Y on tourism and travel. These questionnaires were sent to a randomly selected population of 700 respondents who were all Generation Y. They were sent through email and were accompanied by a short description of the research objectives so as inform the respondents of the purpose of their contributions. Ethical implications There is the need to observe some ethical issues since this study entails the use of human beings as respondents. There is the obvious need to obtain consent from the respondents and their organizations for those who represent tourism firms and hotels that are contacted, before the interviews are conducted so as to ensure that they are aware of the study and its purpose. Prior to the research, all the important details of the research which included the aim and the purpose behind it are provided to the respondents for them to make an informed decision to participate in the study. There is also the need for anonymity where personal information is not required from the respondents in the process of answering the questionnaires, as the study is only interested in their personal opinions on tourism and travel (Markley, 2002). The respondents are not required to disclose their names or personal information, as well as the name of the organization or any information that can be used to give a definite profile of it. The respondents are given the freedom to charter the course of the study with an option to withdraw from the research if they wish to do so. 6. Analysis The analysis of the collected data is quantitative in regard to the particular percentages of the respondents. There were 40 responses by the end of the first week and these were transferred to a database where each of the questionnaire’s pages was represented in a table. The responses were on the other hand represented as elements on the table. The database was designed to take both alphabetical and numeric data. By the end of two months the online responses had increased to 148 and the hard copy responses to 27. This therefore means that the research analysis is based on a response rate of 25 percent. From the first part of the questionnaire it is evident that the respondents have a positive perception of tourism and travel. This because of the 175 responses, 32 percent of the respondents said that they had been on holiday outside the country once in their lives while 26 percent of them reported to have been out of the country on holiday for a couple of times. Another 24 percent of the respondents reported to have been out of the country to due to their work or to study, but 18 percent reported they had never left the country on holiday or to work. The responses were from different age brackets of Generation Y with 42 percent of them being students. 14 percent were not in school and were also not employed, while the other 44 percent were in gainful employment. It is also important to note that 28 percent of the respondents had post-graduate degrees while another 57 percent had graduate degrees. This study identified that more than 60 percent of the respondents wanted to live and work in other countries while the remaining respondents just hoped to visit other countries on holiday. Of those who wanted to work in other countries, 28 percent identified one country that they would like to live and work in, while the other 72 percent said they would like to live and work in different countries. Since travelling requires high expenditures 52 percent of the respondents who have never left the country cited financial constraints as the reason behind their not achieving their goals of traveling out of the country, while another 29 percent indicated that they were currently tied up with their work and studies to travel outside the country. The other 19 percent indicated that they were simply not interested in living, working or going on holiday outside the country any time soon. 7. Conclusion These outcomes implies that nearly all Australia’s Gen Y actually wants to work and live in foreign countries in addition to going to foreign countries for holidays. The concept of satisfaction and motivation in life in the country is raised by the fact that Gen Y are less inclined to staying in the country due to the fact that most of them cite the need to get exposed to new cultures and also the need to obtain jobs or businesses where they see chances. This leads to the emergency of the question of what really motivates them and what ought to be done in order to decrease brain drain and make sure that travel of Gen Y seeking to leave the country is limited to tourism or study, and that their need for good employment and salaries are served by the local markets. Gen Y also cited absence of sufficient funds and security as some of their major concerns about their travel plans, thus meaning that Gen Y’s travelling out the country has not been that smooth for most of the population although the rate at which gen Y is travelling outside the country is quite high. 8. References Barron, E., Maxwell, A., Broadbridge, M. and Ogden, M. (2007). Careers in hospitality management: Generation Y’s experiences and perceptions. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 14(2). Pp 119–128. Eisner, P. (2005). Managing Gen Y. S.A.M. Advanced Management Hill, R., P. (2002). Managing across generations in the 21st century: Important lessons from the ivory trenches. Journal of Management Inquiry. 11(1). Pp 60-66. Loughlin, C. and Barling, J. (2001). Young worker’s work values, attitudes, and behaviors. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology 74(4). Pp 543–558. Markley, D. (2002). Here comes Y. Successful Meetings 51(8). Pp 39-40. Richardson, S. (2010). Generation Y’s Perceptions and Attitudes Towards a Career in Tourism and Hospitality. Journal of Human Resources in Hospitality & Tourism. 9. Pp 179–199. Solnet, D. and Hood, A. (2008). Generation Y as Hospitality Employees: Framing a Research Agenda. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 15. Pp 59–68. Streeter, B. (2004). Next generation employees, yeah, they're different. ABA Banking Journal. 96(12). Pp 12. Tulgan, B. (2004). Trends point to a dramatic generational shift in the future workforce. Employment Relations Today. 30(4). Pp 23-31. Wolburg, J. and Pokrywczynski, J. (2001). A Psychographic Analysis of Generation Y College Students. Journal of Advertising Research.41(5). Pp 33-52. Read More