Members of Gen Z have grown up with social media as a constant and lived some of their formative years during the COVID-19 pandemic, both of which have shaped their approach to life, as well as travel.
According to Alex Yardley, CEO of Fly Fairly, a flight booking platform that offers alternative payment options, Gen Z, defined as those born between 1997 and 2012, is adventurous.
Young adults in this generation are traveling more often than their predecessors, and they’re not afraid of traveling solo, he said.
“[Gen Z] is much more likely to see a user generated content video of some cool place to go and then want to book a trip straight afterwards and say, ‘I'm going to go travel this weekend ... I'm going to go spend a weekend in Ho Chi Minh, and then two weeks later I'm going to go to Bangkok, just for a short trip.’”
But when booking travel, what exactly is Gen Z looking for? What do they prioritize? Industry leaders say that three main factors reign supreme: freedom, flexibility and transparency.
The TikTok effect
Social media makes it easier to craft a transparent narrative and reach Gen Z, which leans on these platforms for travel inspiration and research.
“They're social first. They're mobile native, and from that perspective, they're inspired through social media platforms, through reels,” Yardley said.
According to data from Phocuswright’s “U.S. Travel Trends 2025” report, approximately 64% of U.S.-based Gen Z travelers made a travel decision based on content they saw on social media. Interestingly, this was only slightly higher than their millennial counterparts, with 61% of respondents saying social media influenced a travel decision.
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According to Sefton Monk, founder of cruise booking app and website My Kind of Cruise, Gen Z has become the company’s fastest growing demographic in terms of downloads and bookings, thanks to social media.
“We’ve tailored our content specifically for TikTok, which has proven to be highly effective in engaging this audience,” Monk said.
“Gen Z is drawn to visually appealing and relatable content, and TikTok provides the perfect platform for us to showcase cruises in a way that resonates with them.”
Phocuswright’s research highlighted TikTok too, which emphasized a clearer difference between Gen Z and millennials: 57% of Gen Z respondents said that they used TikTok to make a trip decision, compared to just 29% of millennials, who said they lean more on Facebook (62%).
According to Thomas Hertkorn, head of online marketing at budget-friendly hostel chain a&o hostels, TikTok has actually usurped Google as "the main game."
The app’s focus on video has helped it outpace competitors such as Instagram, Hertkorn said. TikTok also helps a&o see “real results,” showing significantly higher conversion rates (1.74%) when compared with campaigns run on Meta (1.23%) and YouTube (0.57%).
“We are going back to the good old days of marketing: It’s really about emotions, and you can really kick off emotions directly with TikTok,” Hertkorn said, noting that the company’s “best performing” content is generated by creators they work with, who post a TikTok with a small ad listing hotels and price points within a certain region.
“You can deliver a good feeling and [it’s not] the brand that is telling the story—it's really the creator that is telling the story, and we are just a sidenote,” Hertkorn said.
Meanwhile, platforms like Fly Fairly are introducing new social verticals.
Earlier this year, Fly Fairly acquired Gen Z-focused travel discovery engine LFG, which is described as a combination of Pinterest and Spotify. The platform allows travelers to search and create “Placelists,” saving and bookmarking travel spots to share with friends. As a Gen Z team, LFG is also adept at developing content for their own generation, according to Yardley.
“They are very firmly within the Gen Z camp, and they understand and see and perceive the world and opportunities in very different ways ... and I think that diversity of thought is such a fantastic thing for us,” he said of LFG. “It allows us to understand opportunities in a way that only Gen Z can speak to Gen Z authentically.”
There’s an app for that
When it’s time to book, Gen Z wants the flexibility to do so at the last minute and change their plans as they see fit. But these aren't capabilities legacy systems typically allow.
“The lack of flexibility that is inherent within some of the traditional forms of travel, it was quite jarring to them,” Yardley said. “Freedom of booking is really critical for them when they’re looking at choosing who to go with.”
Hertkorn added that Gen Z cares less about the brand they book with and more about how they’re going to experience a destination.
They expect to have a booking funnel, which is not fourteen clicks with a loyalty program they never asked for. They just want to book.
Thomas Hertkorn, a&o hostels
“They really want freedom, flexibility and for brands to stop pretending that they are the main act of it,” he said, noting that a&o is focused on “empowering” Gen Z travelers.
Additionally, Gen Z “expects you to be seamless,” Hertkorn said.
“They expect to have a booking funnel, which is not fourteen clicks with a loyalty program they never asked for. They just want to book.”
Phocuswright’s research echoed this, with an online travel agency website/app being the top method Gen Z used to book both hotels (38%) and airline tickets (39%), followed by travel supplier apps.
This is particularly important for the cruise sector, which has lagged with technology integration. According to Monk, an app can make or break a booking decision.
“Through research, we found that 66% of millennials and Gen Zers wouldn't book a holiday unless there was an app for it,” Monk said, noting that this was a driving force for the creation of My Kind of Cruise.
“We understand that young people, in general, don't want to deal with the hassle of talking to someone over the phone. Interestingly, industry wide, the vast majority of cruise bookings are still done via phone, which feels outdated for the modern traveler. By offering a seamless digital experience, we’re able to meet the expectations of this demographic, who prefer to handle everything via an app.”
How does Gen Z feel about price and payments?
Convenience is certainly a priority, but money still talks. Phocuswright research found that price was the top reason that Gen Z would choose a flight booking channel (39%), followed by convenience (35%). When choosing a hotel booking channel, however, convenience was more important (42%) than price (29%).
When it’s time to shell out for a trip, Gen Z is inhibited by their aversion to credit cards—and they’re not as intrigued by loyalty programs, industry leaders said.
“They’re not as sticky to traditional forms of payments like credit cards as previous generations. They’re much more inclined to go with buy now, pay later formats,” Yardley said.
“This is also mirrored by the fact that Gen Z has the lowest participation rates of airline loyalty programs of any generation, and the reason why is that they don’t spend enough time with any specific brand to accrue the points."
They’re not as sticky to traditional forms of payments like credit cards as previous generations. They’re much more inclined to go with buy now, pay later formats.
Alex Yardley, Fly Fairly
Research published by OAG last year found that younger travelers are less likely than their older counterparts to join an airline loyalty program or be loyal to one specific airline, with 61% of Gen-Z respondents citing “lack of consistent travel with a single carrier or brand.”
In a separate survey conducted by Hopper last year, approximately 60% of Gen Z travelers said they weren’t participating in any travel brand or credit card loyalty program. When making travel purchases, most Gen Z travelers were using debit cards (42%) or alternative payment methods like buy now, pay later (BNPL) or Apple Pay (30%).
Rather than signing up for a credit card that allows them to gain status with one airline, Gen Z prioritizes choice, according to Yardley, who said BNPL is a “low friction” option that also encourages financial responsibility.
“You don’t roll the balance into perpetuity by just paying off interest and getting yourself into a bad position," Yardley said.
Looking ahead
Moving forward, technology will only become further enmeshed with the travel booking process, and Gen Alpha will be more adept at navigating it.
“In the way that Gen Z is significantly more digitally savvy than millennials, that’s going to be a warp jump when it comes to Gen Alpha,” Yardley said.
AI, too, is going to become even more important. Recent data from EF Ultimate Break, a group travel company for young adults, found that 76% of both Gen Z and millennials are using AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for travel planning.
Data on Google’s position in the consumer internet funnel from Morgan Stanley also showed that while Google is still often a first stop for travelers, for 16- to 24-year-olds, ChatGPT searches did “eat into Googl’s leadership” during the first half of 2025.
Hertkorn noted that a&o has seen traffic trending in Europe on ChatGPT and Gemini, predicting that the booking funnel will become a thing of the past within the next decade.
“It will be really about making every room and every data point that we have accessible and readable for our AI systems that are out there, because there will be some sort of movement to a personal assistant,” he said, adding that even with the General Data Protection Regulation and data protection and privacy in Europe, marketing teams will “find solutions” to directly advertise to travelers.
“I guess it’s pretty clear where we are heading to, and this is a pretty awesome time to be in marketing because you can do stuff that wasn’t possible last year.”