If you were asked to name the first luxury car brand that pops into your head, your answer would likely say a lot more about you than about cars.
And that might not be good. If "Chevrolet" popped into your head, you don't know much about cars. If you said "Cadillac," we could be virtually certain that you don't live in Milan. If you answered "Duesenberg," we would peg you for an automotive historian or a very senior citizen.
Change the game to trendy destinations. If you answered "Acapulco" or "Trieste," you would be seen as behind the times or out of touch.
Which leads us to the question of the day: Would a travel agent recommending the Waldorf or the Dorchester to a 30-something traveler be committing a similar faux pas? These might be the types of hotels that their parents aspired to, but what about their kids?
The question is more serious than a parlor game. As we note in the news pages today, boomers might still be the big spenders on travel these days, but by mid-decade that torch will begin to pass to a younger generation of upscale travelers. And if you tell them that a particular cruise ship or hotel is "the Cadillac of its class," you could lose the sale.
For travel professionals accustomed to catering to boomers, merely acquiring more product knowledge isn't enough. As one speaker at the recent International Luxury Travel Market conference said of the younger generations, "They just know more. Everything's at their fingertips."
For some time now, commentators (including us) have been noting the graying of the travel agency population and wondering if the industry is attracting enough newcomers.
We've seen encouraging signs of late, as some young entrepreneurs have been attracted to travel by the emergence of new business models, such as hosting, and low-cost Internet technologies, such as social media.
This is a welcome development, and not only because the industry needs new people. It also needs a new generation of travel sellers who can speak to a new generation of buyers without saying things like "Duesenberg."