abstract
- The number of young tourists has been growing fastest worldwide, and among them backpackers are a growing segment in the tourism industry. The importance of youth tourism is a global challenge for tourism professionals and particularly to urban destinations. Understanding their spatiotemporal behavior is of utmost importance. The main objective of this chapter is to discuss the motivations and spaciotemporal behavior of generation Z and its importance for sustainability of urban destinations. Data collection was performed using a questionnaire survey and GPS tracking of movements made during a visit day. A total of 74 tourist trip itineraries (Smartphone GPS tracks) and questionnaires from Generation Z and Generation Y backpackers were collected. Both generation backpackers consume the urban destination in a very similar way. However, Generation Z and Y reveal a different pattern of temporal behavior: generation Z backpackers made short-duration visits comparing to those of Generation Y,