Question: When does the broadening of a major travel supplier’s travel distribution channel result in less revenue opportunities for travel affiliates? Answer: When the new channel pays affiliates less than the supplier’s existing affiliate program! This seems to be the case with LeisureLink’s new distribution deal with Priceline when compared to their existing program with […]
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Expedia Drops Fees, Can Travel Affiliates Pick-Up Sales?
May 28, 2009 – 2:38 pm
Looking for opportunities to increase your travel affiliate sales with online travel agencies (OTAs)? If yes, Expedia may have the ‘ticket’ to success. Aiming to get more customers to book on its site, Expedia announced today that it was making permanent its recent promotion of waiving consumer booking fees on all online air tickets booked […]
Micro-Hotel Model May Lead to Mega Travel Affiliate Programs
May 27, 2009 – 6:09 am
Once the domain of Japanese salarymen crashing after a night of partying in Ginza or gap-year European student travelers traipsing around the world on a shoe-string budget, the micro-hotel concept seems to be sweeping the hospitality industry, and though it may be a bit early to call, this trend could pay big dividends to travel […]
Travel Affiliates Help Travel Suppliers Sell Distressed Inventory
May 26, 2009 – 3:49 pm
Question: What do British Airways, Avis Car Rental, Expedia, Carnival Cruise Line, Funjet, InterContinental Hotels, Occidental Hotels, and RIU Hotels and Resorts have in common? Answer: Each travel supplier has a significant amount of distressed inventory, and all look to their travel affiliate partners to help offload it. Read any travel industry newswire, visit any […]
Things I Think I Think – May 25, 2009
May 25, 2009 – 3:25 pm
This week’s musings, reflections and observations… 1. I think that there is a lot of venture capital money chasing too many travel 2.0 start-ups. In addition to travel deals discovery search engine voyig.com (which TravelDividends profiled in our May 18th blog post), add Nextstop.com, Dopplr.com, Tripsay.com, Plazes.com and OffbeatGuides.com to the list of the ‘next […]
MyCreativeTours.com Offers Creative Experiential Tours and Big Travel Affiliate Payouts
May 22, 2009 – 7:14 pm
Web 2.0 start-up MyCreativeTours, the website that is building the first experiential tour exchange that brings together travelers and local tour guides, is offering travel affiliates 30% commission on all bookings. This program may be the catalyst that the company needs to propel it towards realizing its vision – “promote local tour guides’ creativity and […]
Use Expedia Travel Trendwatch (ETT) to Tweak Travel Affiliate Programs
May 21, 2009 – 6:45 pm
The travel industry is highly sensitive to consumer trends and competitive dynamics. So Travel Affiliates take note of the following tool to keep an eye on those trends. Regardless of what travel niche you compete in or travel product and service you sell, as a travel affiliate, to stay ahead of your competitors, you should […]
Travel Deals Keep Americans Traveling This Summer
May 20, 2009 – 4:47 pm
Two of the most insightful psychographic surveys that profile the purchasing behavior of the U.S. travel consumer – The Harris Poll and the American Express Travel Agent Survey – came out this week within a day of each other. Although some of their conclusions differed, one key finding resonated in both surveys: the ability to […]
A Travel Niche That Isn’t Just ‘For The Dogs’
May 19, 2009 – 1:11 pm
Think that there’s not much affiliate money to be made by focusing on travel niches? If so, you may want to reconsider, as many travel niches can turn out to be ‘cash cows’ rather than ‘dogs’. Case in point: how about dog travel! In our general research about all things associated with the travel affiliate […]