Millennials and Gen Z: Their Characteristics, Perceptions, and Satisfaction from Leisure and Event Perspectives ^†

Abstract

This paper aims to describe the characteristics and digital behaviours of Millennial and Gen Z as event attendees. It also aims to examine the determinants of the two generations’ satisfaction by analysing their relationship with their perceived event quality. The results of regression analysis on 236 participants indicated that event program and event facility were crucial predictors of participants’ level of satisfaction with the event. The originality of this paper lies in the context of the research, where it contributes to assisting event tourism planners manage and design events by considering the views of young generations today.

1. Introduction

The global COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact societies to an extreme degree, from their economy to social conditions, including how people spend their leisure time [1]. Among the various types of leisure activities, events have been a growth area in many countries for decades [2]. Events are not only considered a way to escape from routine and daily activity, but their presence also helps cities and regions attract visitors and improve the host’s economic condition [1,3].

Jakarta Fair, commonly known by the locals as PRJ, is an annual event in Jakarta and part of a series of events to celebrate the city’s anniversary. It has been claimed as the largest exhibition event in Southeast Asia, given the event’s ability to attract millions of visitors during its one-month-long arrangement. After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jakarta Fair was held again this year. This time it was held longer than usual, which was 39 days, and it successfully attracted 7 million visitors. Despite the pandemic’s disruption, many people attended the event for various purposes as Jakarta Fair offered not only exhibitions but also various entertainments, ranging from concerts, carnival parades, fireworks, kids’ playgrounds, and other activities. That said, events act as a leisure and recreation space, entertainment venue, and marketplace.

As event tourism has grown in many cities worldwide, and some events have even become a city’s major attraction, the industry players must stay competitive. One way is by tracking changes and trends of event attendees, which includes incorporating generational diversity among the attendees. It is indeed common nowadays for many companies to use generation-oriented improvements for optimizing their businesses, including the tourism and leisure industry [2,4]. As the future belongs to Millennials and Gen Z, where these generations have dominated the current global population as well as Indonesia’s. According to Ramgade and Kumar (2021), Millennials are around 31.5% of the total global population of the world while Gen Z belong to about 32%; data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2020 showed that the population of Indonesia was dominated by Millennials which was 25.87% and Gen Z which was 27.94% of the total population), tourism and leisure players must shift from their conventional approach to focus on the needs of these two generations. Especially considering that they are more willing to spend their money to have experiences than products, it shows bigger opportunities for the tourism and leisure industry [5]. However, as an event’s nature comprises tangible and intangible service products, participants often face difficulties assessing an event’s quality [6]. This situation calls for urgent attention for event and festival organizers to understand the quality of an event experience. It is imperative because one of the critical success factors in maintaining an event’s competitive advantage is building long-term participant–event relationships [7]. That being said, event organizers must understand their event quality from the participants’ perspectives. Jakarta Fair is not exceptional. Albeit the oldest and most iconic event in Jakarta, they must optimize their events for younger generations.

Based on the aforesaid, this study aims to provide Millennial and Gen Z characteristics in attending events and examine the determinants of the two generations’ satisfaction by analysing its relationship with their perceived event quality. Regarding the former aim, digital behaviour, i.e., the source of information availability and payment method, is also included as the two generations, mainly Gen Z, have been considerably connected with technology. Further analysis of moderating variables from digital behaviour component was also conducted to identify their significance on the relationship between event quality and satisfaction. Finally, as there are only a few studies that focus on understanding the behavioural intention and perspectives of Millennials and Gen Z as event participants [2], this study contributes to increasing that understanding.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Event Quality and Satisfaction

Service quality is widely known as an area of interest in any business because of its relationship with customer satisfaction. Within the leisure and events context, the higher the quality, the longer the event participants are willing to stay at the event, the bigger expenditure they spend during the event, and the broader positive word of mouth they spread to other people. Given the importance of identifying event quality, many studies have been conducted to determine its dimensions since the early 1990s [2]. However, most of them were carried out in specific contexts, such as sport event, mega international event, food festivals, cultural festivals. Instead, there are still few studies to understand event quality on the type of event like Jakarta Fair that is mixed of business events, concerts, and food festivals. Considering that dimensions of event quality are different to the context and vary across industry, more research is needed to explore event quality.

Literature on the event quality has also shown that prior studies investigating perceived event quality often links with attendee satisfaction and show positive relationships between excellence of event quality towards participants’ satisfaction [2]. However, recent studies found that when it comes to investigating the topic on younger generation, more research is needed as there is a paucity of studies focusing on Millennials [8]. As aforementioned discussion indicates that event quality will have an impact to the participants’ satisfaction, the following hypothesis is formulated:

H1: 

Event quality positively affects event attendees’ satisfaction.

2.2. Digital Behavior of Millennials and Gen Z from Leisure and Event Perspectives

Like other sectors, the advancement of technology has also been said to influence the overall event experiences. Previous studies demonstrated that technology and digitalization directly affect Gen Z’s engagement and satisfaction and Millennial’s loyalty [5]. Event organizers must therefore embrace new technologies and innovate to keep up with consumer demand to ensure that their event attendees have a better experience. Further studies by Woods and King (2010 in Ramgade and Kumar, 2021) about the generation’s characteristic in hotel industry found that during the process of check-in and check-out, this generation is often less patient than previous generations. In the event sector, one of the most common technological methods provided nowadays that helps to reduce waiting times for queueing are cashless payment systems. Previous research also showed that the use of digital payment can improve quality of transaction experience which leads to increase attendees’ spending and overall satisfaction at the event [9]. Based on aforementioned discussion, digital tools provided before and during the event, in this case specifically related to its use as a payment method and information source, will have an influence on the participants’ satisfaction. Accordingly, the following hypotheses have been formulated:

H2: 

The payment method influences the relationship between event quality and event attendees’ satisfaction.

H3: 

The information source influences the relationship between event quality and event attendees’ satisfaction.

3. Methods

3.1. Research Method

This research used quantitative data to provide a general picture of the research problem by exploring the relationships between event quality and satisfaction. A convenience sampling survey of 236 participants was completed to gain the perception of event participants at the Jakarta Fair. The sample size was identified based on Yamane’s formula with a 7% precision level, and the confidence level is 95%. Data were collected through a survey from June–July 2022, using a Likert scale questionnaire with several sections, obtaining different types of information, such as socio-economic, event quality, satisfaction, and loyalty.

3.2. Operational Variables

Data analysis applied multiple linear regression analysis using SPSS version 28. In this study, the independent variable is event quality, which consists of the event program and facility, and the dependent variable is satisfaction. According to the literature, some factors might indirectly impact event attendees’ satisfaction, and therefore, this study considered generation and payment method as moderating variables.

4. Findings and Discussion

4.1. Descriptive Statistics

This part presents a descriptive summary of the respondents’ characteristics. As seen from

Table 1. Characteristics of Millennials and Gen Z.

	Millennials (109)	Gen Z (127)
Gender
Male	47 (43.1%)	50 (39.4%)
Female	62 (56.9%)	77 (60.6%)
Education
Primary	4 (3.7%)	10 (7.9%)
Secondary	36 (33.0%)	50 (39.4%)
University	69 (63.3%)	67 (52.8%)
Motivation
Recreation	40 (36.7%)	60 (47.2%)
Shopping	41 (37.6%)	18 (14.2%)
Culinary	12 (11%)	19 (15%)
Concert	6 (5.5%)	24 (18.9%)
Others	10 (9.2%)	6 (4.7%)
Attendance
First time	14 (12.8%)	36 (28.3%)
2–4 times	31 (28.4%)	59 (46.5%)
5–9 times	32 (29.4%)	18 (14.2%)
>10 times	32 (29.4%)	14 (11%)

the respondents are classified into two generational categories. Out of 236, 46.2% of respondents are Millennials, and 53.8% are Gen Z. Most respondents from both generation groups are female and are well-educated. Regarding their leisure behaviour, most respondents from the Millennial group were motivated to attend Jakarta Fair for shopping (37.6%) and recreation (36.7%), while the other group was mainly motivated for recreational purposes (47.2%). The respondents from the former group were dominated by return attendees who have visited the event quite often. It can be seen from the results that the total of respondents who visited the event 2–4 times (28.4%), 5–9 times (29.4%), and more than ten times (29.4%) are almost the same percentage. Meanwhile, the latter group are mostly returned attendees who visited the event 2–4 times (46.5%), followed by first-timers (28.3%).

Regarding their digital behaviour,

Table 2. Digital Behavior of Millennials and Gen Z.

	Millennials	Gen Z
Payment method
Cash	51 (46.8%)	57 (44.9%)
Non-cash/cashless	15 (13.8%)	19 (15%)
Mixed	43 (39.4%)	51 (40.2%)
Source of information
Social media	72 (66.1%)	97 (76.4%)
Printed media	3 (3.6%)	2 (1.6%)
Others	34 (30.3%)	28 (22%)

shows a descriptive summary of the respondents’ chosen payment method and event information source. In terms of the digital payment methods used by the event attendees during the Jakarta Fair, the Millennials and Gen Z respondents predominantly paid with cash and mixed payment. As for the source of information about the event, both groups also presented similar results, which indicate social media as their source of information.

4.2. Reliability and Validity Check

The 12 items utilized to measure the dimensionality of event quality were subjected to principal component analysis (PCA). Prior to performing PCA, the suitability of data for factor analysis was assessed. Inspection of the correlation matrix revealed the presence of many coefficients of 0.3 and above. The results showed that the items were suitable for factor analysis and identified two factors with Eigen values exceeding 1. The reliability of the two factors was then evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha as it is the most common and widely known method. A measurement construct is considered reliable if it demonstrates alpha scores more than 0.70 [10]. In this study, the Cronbach’s alpha values for each construct ranged from ∝ 0.706 to ∝ 0.785, which is in line with the recommended value.

Table 3. Results of Principal Component Analysis.

Items	Factor Loading	Cronbach’s Alpa
Event Program		0.785
Food variation and quality	0.973
Promo	0.973
Program content	0.536
Event Facility		0.706
Staff service	0.818
Customer service	0.772
Site safety	0.622
Site comfortability	0.618
Information availability	0.566
Site layout	0.475

shows the summary of factor analysis results.

4.3. Hypotheses Testing

The assumptions for conducting the multiple linear regression analysis (MLR) were examined and met. No cases were eliminated, examination of the histograms revealed normal distributions for all of the analyses, and examination of the residual plots revealed that the assumption of linearity was also met. Furthermore, both the tolerance and VIF statistics indicated that multicollinearity was not a problem in the regression analysis.

Table 4. Results of Multiple Linear Regression.

Relationships	B	β	t-Value	p	Decision
EP → SAT	0.187	0.145	2.249	0.025 *	Accepted
EF → SAT	0.355	0.277	4.283	<0.001 ***	Accepted

* p ≤ 0.05, *** p ≤ 0.001.

displays the results from the MLR analysis and indicates that both components of event quality, which are event program and event facility, significantly and positively influenced event attendees’ satisfaction. This result means that the hypotheses for the relationship between event quality and satisfaction is accepted. The findings further showed that event facility (β = 0.277) had a greater impact on satisfaction than event program (β = 0.145). The equation which forecasts the factors influencing on this aspect implies that respondents’ satisfaction increased by 0.355 and 0.187 for each point of the quality of event facility and program consecutively. However, this finding also indicates weak correlations between the two independent variables towards the dependent variable.

As seen in

Table 5. Results of Moderating Variables—Payment Methods.

Relationships	B	β	t-Value	p	Decision
CASH: EP → SAT	0.192	0.176	1.886	0.062	Rejected
CASH: EF → SAT	0.411	0.338	3.626	<0.001 ***	Accepted
CASHLESS: EP → SAT	0.380	0.271	1.334	0.192	Rejected
CASHLESS: EF → SAT	0.268	0.211	1.039	0.307	Rejected
MIXED: EP → SAT	0.154	0.107	1.042	0.300	Rejected
MIXED: EF → SAT	0.335	0.246	2.409	0.018 **	Accepted

** p ≤ 0.005, *** p ≤ 0.001.

, payment methods with cash and a mix of cash and cashless are significant moderators. This means that the relationship between event facility and satisfaction is positively influenced by the payment method, which, in this case, refers explicitly to cash and mixed payment. It shows that the more positive the attendees’ perception of the event facility, the higher their satisfaction, which is affected by the payment method they used during the event.

Table 6. Results of Moderating Variables—Information Source.

Relationships	B	β	t-Value	p	Decision
SOCMED: EP → SAT	0.228	0.168	2.175	0.031 *	Accepted
SOCMED: EF → SAT	0.314	0.222	2.872	<0.05 *	Accepted
PRINTED: EP → SAT	0.916	0.560	0.623	0.597	Rejected
PRINTED: EF → SAT	0.376	0.334	0.372	0.746	Rejected
OTHERS: EP → SAT	0.120	0.107	0.824	0.413	Rejected
OTHERS: EF → SAT	0.353	0.318	2.445	0.018 *	Accepted

* p ≤ 0.05.

shows that information source is a significant moderator for the relationship between event facility and satisfaction. However, it is essential to note that only social media and other sources of information positively and significantly influence the relationship. It demonstrates that the more positive attendees’ perception of the event facility, the higher their satisfaction, and it is affected by the type of information source they used.

5. Conclusions

The results of this study confirm those of existing studies, such as [2,3], which showed positive effects of event program and facility on participants’ satisfaction, regardless of the relationship, which is not as strong as expected. This study also demonstrates the positive influence of digital tools, such as payment methods and information sources, in the relationship between event quality and attendees’ satisfaction. The result is in line with previous studies [4]. However, further investigation of the findings has shown that the relationship between event facility and satisfaction is positively influenced only by the payment methods with cash and mixed payment. Whereas, existing studies, e.g., [5,9], showed that cashless or digital payment provides satisfaction for Millennials and Gen Z as it enhances their experience.

In Indonesia, Millennials and Gen Z are the significant workforce with increasing income and dominating service consumption. Thus, for event sustainability, particularly post-COVID-19, it is essential for event organizers to understand better the influential factors affecting their experience and satisfaction of Millennials and Gen Z [2]. This study advances the body of knowledge by revealing their characteristics and determinant factors in attending events. Furthermore, as there is insufficient knowledge on how different event quality dimensions can independently contribute to participants’ satisfaction, particularly in a developing context [2], this study also adds knowledge in this area. That said, this study considers event quality dimensions independently, which in this case refers to event program and facility.