Students travel extensively over holiday breaks and in their free time. Is this attributed to the fact that their parents and older generations are known to love travel? (Photo courtesy of Abigail Mabe)
Millenials love to travel. It is one of the generation’s defining traits. Boomers travel more than millenials, though, and because of their old retirement money, spend the most on vacation. But how do these generations contribute to the travel habits of the current gen-z generation?
Camille Xu, a student at Leesville High School, loves traveling: “It gives [me] insight into other peoples cultures, and it allows [her] to explore different parts of the world.” The majority of gen-z concur with Xu, looking to travel as a getaway from stress at home and as a learning experience abroad.
These beliefs about travel are prevalent among the gen-z generation, the habit of traveling often commonly attributed to the millennial and boomer parents and influencers, who both love to travel. As part of the gen-z is still slightly too young to travel the world alone, they travel with family members. Due to the love of travel in those older family members, those beliefs travel down through the generations. When asked if she traveled with her friends or family more, Sydney Mudd, a student at LRHS, answered, “Family but traveling with friends is super fun.”
Now that we have established gen-zers enjoy traveling as much as their parents, how far do they travel in comparison? “Normally my family travels to Asheboro and back, but I want to try going out of the country,” says Taylor Aldridge, a student at LRHS. This shows the eagerness of gen-z to travel further compared to older generations.
Mudd aspires to study abroad in the future because she “loves to travel [to] warm places and out of the country.”
With increasing pressure on gen-zers to go to college and receive a degree, is there enough time for the extensive traveling that is hoped for? According to Xu, her family, “travels whenever [they] can so like during breaks in school.” They seem to fit in whatever time possible for travel. Even in the recent winter break, there were constant posts of students traveling from place to place.
Clearly, nothing will hold back the generation-z from traveling the same or even more extensively than the millennials and boomers that came before them.
Hi! My name is Abigail and I am a senior editor for The Mycenaean. I am also a member of Leesville’s cross country team and track team, as well as the president of National Technical Honor Society.