| Summary: | Nowadays, consumers all over the world are opting for having leisure experiences over owning material possessions. One group in particular is said to be primarily responsible for driving this consumer shift - the millennial generation. As millennials become the generation with the highest global spending power and global expenditure on the experience economy continues to rise, it is pressing to comprehend the dynamic of this environment. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to better understand the relation between the millennial generation and the experience economy and, more precisely, this cohort’s preference for experiences over possessions and the role played by the experiential categories themselves (entertainment, educational, escapist and esthetic). As such, to discover which experiential realms and elements are more valuable to millennials and the deeper personal outcomes they desire from each experience type, a questionnaire was devised to assess their behaviors and beliefs on this matter. The collected data was analyzed through descriptive statistics. Findings show that millennials exhibit a strong overall preference for experiential purchases over material ones. Yet, esthetic experiences are deemed less relevant than clothes and accessories or even electronic devices, which suggests that not all types of leisure experiences are preferred to material possessions. Additionally, it became evident that millennials desire experiences that correspond to their distinct emotional expectations and that are experientially diverse.
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