The industry continues to grow as entrepreneurs like you explore
innovative ways to help travelers make the most of their business and
leisure trips regardless of their destinations. All successful
entrepreneurs began the process of determining the ideal approach to
starting their companies by first determining which type of made the
most sense for them to pursue.
The industry includes five types of online travel businesses:
Private Sale: This category includes flash sale, member-only, daily deal, and group-buying travel sites.
Tour/Trip
Operators: "Trip" is the more accurate term as this category
specializes in selling packaged trips to vacationers with no tour
operations included.
Guides and Activity Providers: As the name
states, this group does provide guided tours and other activity guidance
during a trip.
Online Travel Agencies: Also called OTAs, this
group sells everything general travelers need from lodging, air travel,
and car rentals to full vacation packages.
Brokers: OTBs contract
with travel suppliers such as airlines and hotels to represent their
businesses and help them sell more of their travel products.
Each
of these types of online travel businesses is discussed in detail in
Module 1 of the Travel Business Academy's Startup and Growth Program.
However, the first category-Private Sale -remains the hottest business
model in this space.
Private Sale - Private sale sites operate on
the premise that consumers look for-and enjoy buying-"act now or lose
out" deep-discount deals.
Private sale sell travel products such
as hotel rooms, cruises, and tours, from big-name travel suppliers that
are willing to sell excess inventory at a discount but also need to
protect their brand image. Rather than offering incredible deals on
their own websites, these suppliers opt to offer them through flash
sale, daily deal, or group-buying travel sites.
Do private sale or
member-only travel sites cater only to exclusive memberships? Not
really. Most require some sort of sign-up, sometimes via another member,
simply to make their site look more upscale.
Social media
contributes immensely to the success of private sale online travel
websites. Private offerings with exclusive daily or weekly deals, strict
deadlines, and significant discounts on high-end travel services such
as five-star hotels quickly become hot topics on social media networks,
where people love to share the deals they've discovered in order to
improve their standing with others in their personal circles. Such an
easy and free distribution and promotional strategy contributes to sales
as well as memberships on the private sale websites that initiated and
communicated the offer in the first place.
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