Desire to travel increases in 2010. Save more while traveling more.
Photo Courtesy: Freedigitalphotos.net
Additional Resources
While the travel industry has suffered in 2009 because of the global economic crisis, statistics show that there is a strong desire to increase the amount of leisure travel for the upcoming year of 2010.
A 2010 travel intentions survey was conducted by the inspirational travel web site travel-ticker.com which shows that 86% of those surveyed intend to increase the amount of leisure travel that they took in 2009. Only 6% of consumers stated that they were considering taking less leisure travel.
Because the interest for travel is increasing, it is beneficial to have the benefit of traveling while saving money. This allows consumers to spend more on the things they want during travel, or simply enables them to travel more. With the internet ready and available at your disposal, travel deals are not hard to find. But how do you know if you are getting the best deal available?
First- start with research. Understanding when peak travel seasons occur, helps you to find affordable flights during off peak seasons. Second- knowing where you want to go is the first step in researching for the best price available. It must be noted though, that vacation packages often offer lower prices than if you built your bundled vacation on your own.
The very popular and most notable travel sites Orbitz.com offers its insight in preparing for the 2010 year. The busiest travel time of 2009 are determined to be: 1. Christmas, 2. 4th of July, 3. Thanksgiving, 4. Third week of June, 5. First week of August. The slowest week of travel will be the week after Christmas.
Using a travel agent can be beneficial because it is a “one stop and shop“ experience. Agents have access to special deals or discounted flights, hotels or vacation packages that might be worth your while. For those do it yourselfers, know which web sites to search. Internet travel sites are a great way to shop for affordable flights, hotels and more. Here are a few popular wesites for travel:
Auction style websites:
| www.priceline.com | www.hotwire.com |
Another way to save money on flights, is to go to the air carriers web site and subscribe for periodic updates on rates and unbeatable deals. These rates will usually be available from air carriers and are designed to offer you a very low fare flight from the airport that you choose as your “home” airport. Offers are based on your specifications. Here are links to some of the more popluar airline carriers:
Low Cost Carriers:
| Southwest Airlines | Horizon Air |
| Ryanair | Virgin America |
| Jetblue Airways | Air Trans Airways |
| Frontier Airlines | Sun Country Airlines |
The last thing you need to do is to track your airline fares. What is fare tracking? Fare tracking allows you to input your flight information into a website that will watch fares for you. If your fare drops, you will be notifed by email that your flight just became more affordable. You can also fare track after you book, if your fare dropps within a certain amount of money (that is predetermined by the airline carrier), you become eligible for the discount on the fare difference.
| www.yapta.com | www.sidestep.com |
Additional resources: Fare tracking, Get a refund after you purchase your ticket
Special thanks to Lily and Travel-ticker.com, And to Cristina Martinez and orbitz.com for the information needed for this article.
If you enjoyed this article and would like to be notified of future articles by Jennifer, please click on subscribe at the top of the page. Your e mail address will not be shared.
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Comments
This is a very comprehensive list that is fantastic for the novice traveler as well as the renegade traveler. Thank you for these great tips.
Fantastic resource list - thank you! I would love to travel more in 2009 but it's so hard to plan anything with my husband's job.
Great that people will be traveling more!
Superb compilation of travel information. I travel so much for business that by the time I get home I don't want to go anywhere. But for those who rarely stray far from home, these sites are more than enough to plan a trip to anywhere! Great job.
Jenn, Excellent article, great writing and research, but just one word of warning: Avoid Cheapoair dot com like the H1N1 virus. First of all, they charge a fee, something ridiculous like $21.50 a booking. Then, there are numerous complaints against them. For example, one person wrote that he bought a ticket for $221.50, including their ridiculous add on fee, and on top of that, they divided his charge into two separate charges, one for $110 and the other for $121.50. You'd think they would simply correct the overcharge? Oh, no. They wouldn't back down. And their customer service is awful. There are lots and lots of complaints on the net about them. I once mistakenly helped a friend make a booking by going to them, being fooled by their name. Before I hit the "Confirm" button, I realized my mistake. I could have gotten the same ticket, same flight even, directly with the airline itself. My friend told me not to bother, he didn't care about the extra cost. Anyway, good story.
Very useful travel site list / compilation,Jenn.
Cheers..
A very helpful round up of so much information. I'll come back to this article in a few months when I'm booking my next trip.
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