Over the past 10 years budget airlines, much to the chagrin of travel agents, have begun to dominate short hop routes. One of the reasons for the decrease in fares has been due to direct booking over the internet and the airline not having to pay commissions to travel agents.
Most hotels and tour operators also have websites that generate some business, but mostly these are small websites that are difficult to find and have minimal traffic. However, you are able to increase traffic to your website by marketing your website using travel communities, travel clubs and vertical portals.
These websites are meeting points for independent travelers who are looking for new and different travel experiences. Travelodium Travel Club and Magazine editor David Cronk said ” A large majority of people who are members of travel clubs and online communities do not use travel agents and quite often know the destination better than the agents themselves. A lot of them are younger travelers that a have a good grasp on technology. You only have to look at the number of travelers that are traveling with a laptop to see that tech savvy travelers make up a huge market."
The type of business that would benefit the most by marketing their site through a travel club would be a private hotel or B & B particularly if they also ran tours or activities. These are the type of experiences that independent travelers are looking for.
For any hotel or tour operator who is interested in benefiting from Travelodium Travel Club, there is no joining fee and no commissions are payable for sales made. The club only earns income through subscription fees that the traveler pays to join the club.
