Keeping up with the joneses: emergence of travel as a form of social comparison among millennials

ABSTRACT

The idea of “Keeping Up with the Joneses” was developed as a phenomenon wherein people want to own the same objects and do the same things as their peers in order to keep up with them socially. Along with the combined rise of globalization, mobile technology and the millennial mindset of valuing experiences over material possessions, this research qualitatively examines how travel has become a marker of status among certain subpopulations of the millennial cohort, along with identifying idiosyncrasies of their social networking habits in conjunction with their travel behaviors. Ascending opportunities for travel and tourism marketing practitioners are denoted.

KEYWORDS:

• Socialization
• travel motivations
• experience economy
• millennial cohort
• social networking sites
• tourism
• peer influence

Acknowledgments

The work described in this article was supported by a grant from RGC Early Career Scheme (Project No. 25604915) and a grant from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project No. PolyU G-YBX7).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University [PolyU G-YBX7]; Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [25604915].