Marketing Destinations to Millennials : Examining the Compatibility between the Destination Marketing Organization Website and the Millennial Tourist Prospects

The Baby Boomer generation has been the focus of a great deal of analysis in the travel industry, the millennial generation is now surpassing this segment in garnering more attention. This study shed light on the millennials as the forthcoming tourist demand to assist the destination management organizations (DMOs) better understand their needs and expectations to address them with the right product using the right means of communication. In this perspective, the study focuses on the DMOs’ websites as a main marketing tool for delivering the marketing message to the millennials. It investigates the alignment between these websites and the millennials’ prospects. Results reveal that the DMOs’ websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennials’ expectations and that there is a significant difference between these websites and the millennials’ prospects regarding the content and performance.


Introduction
Generational differences in consumer travel demands greatly affect travel consumption.Thus, understanding each generation's characteristics, travel needs and desires is essential to ensure destinations are attractive to each new generation of travelers (Gardiner, King, & Grace, 2013b; Gardiner, Grace, & King, 2014; 2015).For decades, tourist destinations and travel companies have ~ 2 ~ focused on the Baby Boomers as an essential market to the travel and tourism industry (Patterson & Pegg, 2009).Now, they are looking to promote to a new generation of travelers known as Millennials.This generation encompasses those who are born between the years 1980 and 1999 and are now reaching their peak earning potential (National Chamber Foundation, 2012).The Millennial generation will form the core customers for the tourism industry within the next years as they are more interested than their older counterparts in traveling abroad and are expected to soon surpass them in their overall travel spending reaching half of the travel spending globally by the year 2020 (Barton, Haywood, Jhunjhunwala, & Bhatia, 2013).They are already changing the face of travel and tourism, forming perceptions and developing travel habits and preferences.Destinations and tourist firms that will not reach out to millennials trying to understand and provide their unique needs will be left out (National Chamber Foundation, 2012; Barton et al., 2013;Machado, 2014).
Millennials were born in the digital era; they rely on technology in every aspect in their daily life.However, technology is only one component of what makes this generation unique, the characteristics and values of millennials also make them different in how they respond to the different forces (Morton, 2002;Kumar & Lim, 2008;Valentine & Powers, 2013;Kim, Xiang, & Fesenmaier, 2015).Hence, applying this on tourism, these people do not travel in the same style as the older generations and marketing to them needs employing innovative methods other than the traditional ones (National Chamber Foundation, 2012; Lee, 2013;Mason, 2015;Ali, 2015).Destination marketing organizations [DMOs] and tourism firms need to modify their product, business models and communication methods to adapt to the millennials' needs and preferences (Oates & Skift Team, 2014a;Miles Marketing Destinations, 2014).
A study conducted in January 2013 (Oates & Skift Team, 2014b) revealed that some of the first tier US destinations their plan for attracting the millennials depend mainly on using the social media, Facebook and Twitter.Thus, they are just thinking about one communication method to reach the millennials leaving the other options behind and above that they did not consider the message or the content that should be delivered to the millennials to encourage their engagement and capture their business.
Thus, marketing effectively to millennials is considered a major challenge confronting the DMOs.To overcome that, the DMO needs to build a marketing strategy that should first, depend on a complete comprehension of the millennials' demographics, behaviors and motivations.Second, it should focus on modifying the tourism product to be compatible with the millennials' desires.Third, it would assign the communication options by which the DMO can reach the millennial audience and deliver its marketing message to them above and beyond the use of social media (Oates & Skift Team, 2014b; Kim et al., 2015).
Currently, there is a substantial amount of sufficient research and information about the millennials' demographics, attitudes and behaviors (Chhabra, 2010 Pendergast, 2010).The more travel-related trend research is published, the greater is the opportunity for tourism firms generally and DMOs specifically to understand the millennial mindset and their travel needs and motivations (Oates & Skift Team, 2014a).
Accordingly, the current study shed light on the millennial generation as the upcoming tourist demand to help the Destination Management Organizations [DMOs] and travel business leaders better understand the characteristics of these travelers to be able to address them with the right marketing message.Besides that, it focuses on the content of the marketing message, featured in the tourism product and services, which should be transferred to the millennials by the DMOs, in addition to the electronic communication methods to be used in delivering this message.
Furthermore, the study investigates the millennials' prospects or expectations concerning the tourism product featured in the marketing message and the delivery method of this message to consider engaging with the DMO.Within this context, the study concentrates on the DMO's website as a main communication method for delivering the DMO's marketing message.
Finally, the study examines the compatibility between the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites concerning the content and the level of performance.

Millennials' Definition
A generation is a group of people who were born during the same time period and who experienced the same life events that caused them to be characterized by certain common attitudes and behaviors that differentiate them from other generations.The uniqueness of values, attitudes and behaviors that each generation features has a great effect on how each generation responds to marketing efforts and strategies (Kim et al., 2015).
Generational labels and generational cohort segmentation are used in both academic and marketing research as an important and valid method of identifying consumer groups (Gardiner, Grace, & King, 2013a).
There are currently five generations: the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials or Generation Y and the coming future generation; Generation Z (National Chamber Foundation, 2012; Pendergast, 2010; Kim et al., 2015).
The terms Millennials, Generation Next, Generation Y or Gen Y, are all related to a specific generation born within a certain range of years.References are inconsistent in perceiving the exact period in which this generation was born and the exact dates vary among researchers (National Chamber Foundation, 2012; Valentine & Powers, 2013;Gardiner et al., 2015).This study will follow National Chamber Foundation (2012) to identify this age group as those born between the years 1980 and 1999.There are 2.5 billion millennials worldwide, one third of the global population.This makes Gen Y exceeds the Baby Boomers by 3 million (Kurz, 2013, p.1).This generation is travelling at a younger age and more than any other generation (Gardiner et al., 2014;Shi, 2014).Millennials are already accounting for about one third of all business travel expenses and expected to provide the majority of spending for travel and leisure within the next five to ten years, driving by this today's and tomorrow's travel trends (Shi, 2014;Welsh, 2015).

Millennials' Characteristics
It is essential to understand the main characteristics that differentiate millennial customers from others.The following section discusses the characteristics and motivations that affect the millennials' travel behavior.

~ 4 ~
Concerning travel, Millennials are already traveling more than the older generations.They travel for all sorts of reasons willing to spend more on authentic travel experiences and take longer vacations (Reid, 2014;Forrest, 2014;nSight, 2015;Kim et al., 2015;Gotardi et al., 2015).
Most millennials are persistent online autobiographers who document their life experiences through social media, focusing on unique content.Hence, they like to share their travel experiences on social media, especially, the authentic ones (National Chamber Foundation, 2012; Travel Rave, 2013; Roth & Fishbin, 2014).
They are also peer affirmation seekers who rely on online reviews.They are more likely to research social media and review sites like TripAdvisor before booking a trip to a certain destination or choosing a certain service (Morton, 2002 Millennial travelers are cause activists who like the idea that their travel spending supports a cause to make the world a better place.During their travel, they are willing to engage in sustainable practices and care about environmental issues (Shi, 2014;Crown Verity, 2015).Furthermore, Millennials are considered sociable, although they place less importance on faceto-face contact than prior generations, they have a strong desire to be actively social through telecommunication.Additionally, millennials are sociable offline.They are very influenced by their friends when it comes to travel.They also enjoy traveling with others in organized groups even if they don't know them previously (Bennett et al., 2003;Valentine & Powers, 2013;Roth & Fishbin, 2014;nSight, 2015).
Millennials' are curious learners; they are interested in rural destinations where they have the opportunity to learn something new.They seek interactive experiences that help them understand the customs and traditions of the place and its local community (Sacks, 2015;Machado, 2014;Amster, 2013).Moreover, millennials are considered last minute decision-makers as their constant access to the internet via tablets and smartphones reinforces this trend.Even in travel, they book the tourist service once they see the deal on it (Forrest, 2014;Fung, 2015;Kim et al., 2015).
Finally, they are considered smart spenders who are more value-conscious when it comes to spending, with access to more information and services (Travel Rave, 2013;Roth & Fishbin, 2014).Preferences are largely driven by budget and they budget for luxury.They look for the special amenity and the individualistic aspect (Yeoman, 2012a(Yeoman, & 2012b;;Lee, 2013;Crown Verity, 2015).

Marketing Destinations to Millennials
Marketing to millennials needs from tourism firms and DMOs to focus on long-term planning, development and designing an effective strategy.This strategy must address the tourism product; amenities; distribution channels; and communication tactics to meet the needs and preferences of millennials (Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Formica & O'Leary, 2006; Barton et al, 2013; Oates & Skift Team, 2014b).
In general, the millennial mindset reacts to two things: fresh, attractive content and how this content is distributed (Oates & Skift Team, 2014a).This section emphasizes the travel product as the content the millennials require and the communication method that DMOs need to focus on when marketing this content to millennials.

The Content
This involves the tourism product and services the DMOs need to offer to millennials.This encompasses niche tourism stressing on the destination specialties such as culinary, music and fashion, in addition to special events and local festivals (Oates & Skift Team, 2014b; Yeoman, 2012a).Besides that, the DMO needs to offer the millennials the local life experience as they are less interested in the commercial tourism product; they want to see the real local life within the destination.Thus, featuring rural areas and local regions on the destination's website including photos and information about places for shopping, eating and having fun, beside, promoting night life in town, and lively surrounding, this gives the millennial explorer the opportunity to choose from these options certain local places or events to include in his tour (Yeoman, 2012a; Miles Marketing Destinations, 2014; Oates & Skift Team, 2014a; Reed, 2014).Moreover, creative tourism will fulfill the desire of the millennial customers who are looking for engaging with the local community for an authentic experience and serving a cause during their travel (Amster, 2013).Then comes the role of all-inclusive tours [A.I.T] which were traditionally offered to the budgetcentric customer, however for millennials, it can provide them with exciting experiences, especially for those who are willing to pay more for experiential vacation by including remote locations as unique sites (Travel Rave, 2013; Roth & Fishbin, 2014).
Furthermore, DMOs should focus on marketing leisure travel as millennials place a high value on their vacation time for leisure.However, millennials are less interested in the traditional sun, sea and sand holidays; they are looking for a greater variety of options according to their stereotyped characteristics.Thus, DMOs should not market its leisure product as a whole but classify it according to the millennial tourists segments.For example: promoting the tourism product and services according to what suit singles, couples, families, health conscious, sustainability focused, adventurous and so on (Rez Stream Hospitality solutions, 2015; Machado, 2014;Roth & Fishbin, 2014).
Finally, DMO should offer the millennial customer the amenities that match his requirement.In accommodation for instance, the typical millennial customer prefers a hotel with a low price-range without sacrificing design, having all the necessary amenities such as free Wi-Fi, social lobby, selfcheck-in kiosks and smart technology (Gretzel et al., 2006;Sacks, 2015).

The Communication Method
"How content is presented is often just as important as the content itself" (Oates & Skift Team, 2014b, p.29).Millennials travelers are attracted to responsive, state-of-the-art websites, mobile apps, photography and videos updated frequently.Thus, a digital DMO is essential for transferring information about the destination's tourism product to the potential millennial customer.
The following section focus on the DMO's website as a core method of communication for delivering the previously mentioned content to the millennial traveler.
First, is the DMO's website efficiency which is considered a main demand for millennials as they expect the website they log to load fast, to be easy to navigate and contain comprehensive information about all what they want to know about the destination (Lenoir, 2013;Kim et al., 2015)?Thus, the DMO website has to offer real-time, accurate information.
Besides that, The DMO's website should focus more on the tourism product that attracts millennials featuring more local lively content, describing rural areas, tourist attractions, activities and services within the destination (Yeoman, 2012a;Lee, 2013;Reed, 2014).
Then, comes the role of user generated content [UGC]; Social media, high-impact blogs and product reviews; all engage consumers with reliable content that they participate in its creation and distribution and help in converting the millennial customer from an audience to a marketing channel (Gretzel & Yoo, 2008 Kim et al., 2015).This can be done through involving local bloggers, experts in fields like music, food and sports, to help answer visitor questions in realtime through live-chat and email; enabling sharing visitors' photos and videos of the destination, this together with the visitors' reviews provide authentic information about the travel experience the ~ 6 ~ visitors have lived by themselves more likely to convince others to do the same trip.Furthermore, the DMO can use visitors' reviews for market research purposes by creating promotions and submitting requests for feedback about innovated services to meet the millennial customer desires, in addition to analyzing the consumer-created data to know what attracts people more about the destination, what product or service they dislike and can negatively affect the marketing efforts and try to improve it (Lenoir, 2013; Oates & Skift Team, 2014a; Mason, 2015).
Moreover, the DMO's website should be connected to other resources with links that transfer the user to other websites considered important to him and would help him in taking the decision of visiting the destination.This includes links to review sites like Yelp, Google Places and TravelAdvisor; links to social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter; and links to travel providers and last-minute booking engines that have deals and offers related to the destination( Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Barton et al., 2013;Piriz, 2015).
Finally, the DMO's mobile-enabled websites and travel related apps for smartphones and tablets are mandatory and they should be designed with the same high content quality and navigation ease to fulfill the millennials' desire to log into the DMO's website using any of the varies devices they utilize (Kumar & Lim, 2008

Methodology
The purpose of this research is to investigate the alignment between the millennial tourists' prospects and the DMOs' websites with respect to its effectiveness as a tool used for marketing destinations to millennials.
To achieve this goal, the study was done on two phases: The first phase: involved conducting a survey to identify the millennials' prospects or expectations with regard to the DMO website concerning the content and performance and the degree of importance for each prospect.A descriptive research design was chosen and a random sampling of 249 millennial respondents participated in this phase (Vatankhah, Koh, & Letchmunan, 2014).
A list of aspects was assigned for the survey composition based on in-depth review of relevant literature pertaining to the millennial tourists' characteristics and preferences.This list involved 5 main categories of attributes, each of which is divided into a number of subcategories as follows: -The Tourism Product: A main attribute classified into: Niche tourism, local life in the destination, creative tourism, marketing all-inclusive tours [A.I.T], leisure travel, and classifying leisure into various categories, responsible tourism, appropriate amenities and other aspects for the millennial respondent to add if any.
-Website performance: Including easy navigation, fast loading, comprehensive information, up-to-date data, frequently asked questions section [FAQ], organized look and feel and others if any.
-User generated content: Encompassing local blogs, live chat feature, visitors' reviews, user generated photos and videos, others if any.
-Hyperlinks: including review sites, social media sites, travel providers, last-minute booking engines, others.
-Mobile-enabled websites: involving content quality on mobile devices, navigation ease and others if any.
-One more aspect was included in the survey to explore the type of websites the respondent, generally prefer using as a source of information when planning to travel.This aspect included: Review sites, social media, travel providers' websites, tourist destination official website, last-minute booking sites, others if any.
To identify the importance level of each of the attributes listed above from the millennial users point of view, all attributes were measured on a 5-point Likert type scale ranging from "A great deal" (5) to "None" (1) for the aspects related to the tourism product, user generated content, hyperlinks and the types of websites; and ranging from "Very good" (5) to "Very poor" (1) for the aspects related to website performance and mobile-enabled websites efficiency.
The second phase of the study involved evaluating the DMOs' websites to identify the extent of their alignment with the millennial users' prospects, as being a crucial method used by the DMOs to market their destinations to this targeted segment.
"The literature constantly states, there is no universally recognized methodology to assess the quality of a website, and the same concept of quality is difficult to define for its dependence on specific situations, objectives, and target audience of a website" (Baggio, Mottironi, & Corigliano, 2011, p.109).Additionally, there is not a generally acceptable method for the evaluation of website success in tourism (Park & Gretzel, 2007).
Thus, the choice in this study was to follow Baggio et al. (2011) and adopt a demand or user side perspective in evaluating the DMOs' websites and choosing the criteria upon which these sites are evaluated, given that the main role of the DMO's official tourism websites is marketing and the millennial users are the target audience.).In addition, the perceptions of the millennial tourists emphasized in the literature review of the current study, along with the attributes identified by the millennials' sample in the first phase and the level of importance designated to each of them by the respondents, all were employed to design a criteria prototype upon which the DMOs' websites can be evaluated.This criteria prototype represents a comprehensive viable instrument for evaluating the DMOs' websites with respect to their alignment with the millennial tourists' expectations.The criteria involved the same attributes employed in the survey of the first phase with the same sub-categories encompassed in each of them: The tourism product, website performance, user generated content, hyperlinks and mobile-enabled websites.
The DMOs' websites for the top 30 destinations in the year 2015, according to The World Tourism Organization (2015), The European Council on Tourism and Trade (2015) and Travelers' Choice™ Destinations (2015), were chosen to be assessed and evaluated using the proposed criteria prototype.
The DMOs' websites of the most recent top destinations were specifically chosen under the assumption that these DMOs should be the keener to target such an important tourist segment as the millennials and they should be applying by now an integrated marketing strategy that involves the innovation of aspects related to their tourism product and their marketing methods according to the millennial tourists' perspectives.In the same vein, these DMOs' websites should align in certain degree with the millennial users' expectations, if not, then this might give an indication that the DMOs haven't yet taken further steps in the right path of marketing to millennials.This leads to the hypotheses of the current study: H1.The DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennial users' expectations.

H2.
There is a significant difference between the millennial users' prospects and the DMOs' websites in terms of content and performance.

Data Collection
This involves the first phase of the study in which a self-administered survey was conducted over a period of three months from October 2015 to December 2015 using a convenience sample of the US millennial population.
To ensure having an appropriate number of millennials to feature the sample of the current study, it was chosen to distribute the questionnaire on community colleges located in three major cities in the State of Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo.
Lecturers and instructors in four main community colleges in these three cities were contacted personally to help in distributing the questionnaire on students at these colleges.
They were ready to help in three of these colleges, thus, the questionnaire was distributed on students attending three main community colleges in Cleveland, Toledo and Columbus, Ohio.
A brief description of the study was provided in the covering letter of the survey and a screening question was placed in the beginning of the survey inquiring about the date of birth range of the respondent; 1946-1964, 1965-1979, 1980-1999 or 2000 and above; to ensure that all the questionnaires that will be used in the analysis represent only the millennials' age group.
The average time to collect questionnaires was 30 days.The completed questionnaires were collected either by mail or in person from the colleges' instructors.
A total of 500questionnaires were distributed, 278were returned and only 249 were used for analysis after excluding a number of questionnaires that either most of its questions were not answered by the respondent or the respondent did not belong to the millennials' age group.

Analysis
The study analysis consists of three stages: In the first stage, the survey addressed to the millennials' sample is analyzed to determine the attributes that the millennials regard as essential in the DMO's website.The statistical range is used to determine the level of importance given to each of the attributes assigned by the millennials' sample in the survey.
As a result, the criteria prototype for evaluating the DMOs' websites is developed.
In the second stage, the DMOs' websites of the top 30 destinations for the year 2015 are assessed according to the attributes composing the criteria prototype generated in the first stage.
The statistical range is also used to determine the level of existence and performance of each attribute in the DMOs' websites.
The third stage in the study analysis involves measuring the degree of alignment between the DMOs' websites and the millennials' expectations or prospects.
A comparison between both statistical ranges and the one sample z-test are conducted to compare between the DMOs' websites' values and the standard levels determined by the millennials' sample in the criteria prototype; hence, testing both proposed hypotheses of the study to determine whether the DMOs' websites are ready to fulfill the millennials' expectations or not and whether their content and performance are considered aligned with the standards required by the millennial users or not.

Results
As mentioned previously, a 5-point Likert type scale ranging from A great deal (5) to None (1) and from Very good (5) to Very poor (1) was used to identify the importance level of each of the attributes listed in the survey addressing the millennial users and in the criteria prototype employed in evaluating the DMOs' websites.In order to figure out the level of importance or existence for each of these attributes according to the 5-point Likert type scale, the statistical range was used for each attribute, in addition to employing the equation of Do Valle, Silva, Mendes and Guerreiro (2006), and Thiam and Siti (2003) to let the range value, point [x], fit within the five Likert points.Thus, the following equation is used: x = Range of each attribute / Total number of attributes.Table 1 illustrates how the range point [x] fit in this manner within the 5-points Likert scale.
None (N) Very Poor (V.P) This method is used first to determine the level of reliance of the millennials on the various aspects as a source of information when it comes to travelling and where the DMOs' websites fall in among these aspects.
Table 2 shows that the millennials rely on all the given aspects a great deal [G.D].The DMOs' websites is rated the 2nd among these aspects which indicates its importance among millennials as a source of information for travel planning.The same method is used to identify millennials' prospects or expectations in the DMOs' websites and the accepted level of presence or performance [X 1 ] for each of the given attributes, as demonstrated in table 3, using the following equation: X 1 = Range of each attribute / Total number of attributes.In the same manner, the DMOs' websites are evaluated, as shown in table 4, according to the criteria prototype constructed on the millennials' preferences and the point [X 2 ] for the level of presence of the millennials' preferences in the DMOs' Websites is calculated using the following equation: X 2 = Range of each attribute / number of attributes in each category.
A comparison is done between the accepted levels of the attributes' presence and performance in the DMOs' websites by the millennial users and the actual levels presented in the DMOs' websites according to their evaluation.This comparison, demonstrated in table 5, investigates the degree of alignment between the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites.Table 5 shows that the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites are not aligned with regard to most of the attributes.The agreement in levels between the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites was only shown in the following attributes: Classifying leisure, fast loading, local Blogs, last minute booking engines, content quality and navigation ease on mobile devices.This, finding validates the first hypothesis of the study that the DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennial users' expectations.
Other significant observations can be witnessed in the previous tables 3, 4, 5.
First, the complete absence of the live chat feature in the DMOs' websites when the millennials on the other hand show that they would like using this feature even a little in the DMO's websites.
Second, the minimum level of existence of visitors' reviews and visitors' photos and videos in the DMOs' websites when the millennials prefer seeing them a great deal in the DMO's websites.
Third, the main dependence of the DMOs' websites on social media as essential hyperlinks for engaging with the target audience, this agrees with Oates and Skift Team (2014b) that the first tier destinations' strategy for attracting the millennials revolves mostly around the social media and agrees with Kim et al. (2015) argument that travel marketers should go beyond social media for targeting millennials.To figure out how significant is the difference between the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites a more precise statistical test is needed at this point.The one sample z-test was chosen for this stage.The one sample z-test was used instead of one sample t-test because the sample size, that is the number of DMOs' websites employed in this study, is equal to 30 or more (Krishna, 2010).Table 6 reveals that when using a two-tailed one sample z-test, p-value < 0.05 with confidence intervals 95%, there is a significant difference between the millennials' prospects and the DMOs' websites with regard to all the attributes.Thus, this finding justifies the previous result and it validates both hypotheses of the study: H1.The DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennial users' expectations.

H2.
There is a significant difference between the millennial users' prospects and the DMOs' websites in terms of content and performance.
Therefore, the two proposed research hypotheses both cannot be rejected.

Discussion and Conclusion
Millennials are already representing the current travel consumers and will preserve this place for years to come.They should be a very attractive target segment for travel suppliers, marketers and DMOs (Kim et al., 2015).Thus, it is necessary for DMOs to observe the new millennial trends and adapt to the needs and prospects of this generation.The current study investigates the degree of alignment between the DMOs' websites and the Millennials' prospects.According to the study findings, millennials consider the DMO's website an essential source of information when it comes to their travel planning, however, the DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennials' prospects, even the websites that belongs to the top ranked destinations.The results of this study validate the research hypotheses that: -The DMOs' websites are still not ready to fulfill the millennial users' expectations.
-There is a significant difference between the millennial users' prospects and the DMOs' websites in terms of content and performance.
This might lead the DMOs' websites to lose their position as an essential source of travel information for the millennials and an important marketing tool for destinations in future.
To prevent that, the DMOs' websites should be given more attention from the destinations' marketers and managers to be able to fulfill the millennials' needs and expectations.It needs to have a vital role in the DMO's fully integrated marketing strategy assigned to target the millennials.The millennials' characteristics, needs and prospects should also be considered when enhancing the DMO's website.For example, adding the live chat feature in the website; increasing the visitors' reviews, testimonials, photos and videos; reducing the huge dependence on social media as the core method for addressing millennials.This agrees with Kim et al. (2015) stating that tourism marketers must go beyond just putting up a social media page to engage millennials, but instead, they should make efforts to build online brand reputation and employ other methods and aspects to engage the millennial consumer and fulfill his needs.Hence, it is argued that the findings of the current study suggests some methods and aspects for attracting millennials and highlights the importance of developing an integrated marketing strategy that involves the DMO's website, content and means of communication to target millennials.On the other hand, studies (Kim et al., 2015;Pew Research Center, 2010) argue that other generations are adopting online activities that have been dominated by millennials as all these traveler generations have a lot in common in terms of channels of information search, planning activities and booking or purchasing travel products.This arouse the claim that DMOs can attract other generation travelers applying the same marketing strategy, content and method of communication followed to target millennials.
In other words, the compatibility occurrence between the DMO's website and the millennials' needs, concerning the content and communication method performance, enhances the DMO's opportunity to attract the millennial tourist in addition to travelers belonging to other generations.

Limitation
The study has some limitations that overcoming provides directions for further research.First, the study involved the US millennials only, thus, future research might address millennials in other regions to be able to generalize results.Second, the questionnaire used a convenience sampling method, which put another limitation to generalize the results of the current study.The samples size is relatively small, future research should consider using larger samples to be able to generalize results to a broader context.Similar limitations apply to the DMOs' websites.The study depended on the websites of the top 30 destinations only, future studies might need to consider DMOs' other than these and increase the sample size employed for evaluating the DMOs' websites.
Future research should also explore in more details: the importance of each attribute mentioned in this study and its role in attracting millennials; the role of micro-targeting in responding to each of the millennial segments needs with the appropriate tourism product and marketing tool; other marketing tools and their role in delivering the marketing message to the millennials and the importance of mobile apps and features in addressing millennials.

Table 2 .
The millennials level of reliance on different sources of information for travel

Table 4 .
Evaluating DMOs' websites according to the millennials' preferences

Table 5 .
Comparison between the millennials' prospects and the actual status of the DMOs' websites

Table 6 .
Measuring the difference between the DMOs' websites and the millennials' prospects using the one sample z-test