Thursday, March 28

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The Growing Value of Experience

I was listening to my car radio this afternoon and I heard a report from Peter Greenberg, the travel editor for CBS News. We used to work together at Newsweek many moons ago, so I paid attention. Greenberg was talking about millennials, and how their values are changing some markets. Many millennials are not buying cars any more, he said, because they don’t want to own something they don’t use that much, particularly when they can pick up a smart phone and use Uber or Lyft or Zipcar when they need to get somewhere. They don’t value a car, per se, or the expense or hassle of owning one.

Millennials, generally defined as people born between 1982 and 2002, are now the largest generation in the U.S., recently surpassing Baby Boomers. And they have their own set of values. What they are looking for, Greenberg said, is experiences. They want to do something more than they want to own something.

As an example, Greenberg said, they want to go boating, they want the experience of boating and cruising, the sense of travel, adventure and enjoyment that go with the boating lifestyle. That’s great for the future of chartering and for the growing group of companies in the boat club or boat-sharing field, and it should help fuel an already newly booming boating market in general. (Greenberg, by the way, knows what he’s talking about, since he lives on his Hatteras 53 in Marina del Rey when he’s working in Los Angeles.)

I can testify to the truth of some of  his remarks from my own experience with my youngest daughter, Liz (pictured above), who qualifies as a millennial herself. A few years ago I took her on a Grand Banks 36 (a sister ship to our own boat) on a charter in the San Juans  from Northwest Explorations in Bellingham, Washington.  It was just the two of us since my wife couldn’t join us. Although Liz had always been a good sport on our summer cruises from Norwalk Cove in Connecticut to Nantucket, I think it’s fair to say that cruising in her younger years was something she tolerated, rather than enjoyed. But now, when she could drive the boat, navigate and be an active part of the experience, she loved it. She wants to do it again. In fact, when we got off the boat back in Bellingham she said she thought her friends would love it too.

 

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