Top Travel Affiliate Programs
- Travel Affiliate Programs are a powerful way to earn money while promoting unique experiences
- Current market trends show that consumers increasingly prefer good memories over buying things
- Smart Funnel helps content publishers to partner with brands that reward them for boosting sales
Do you love traveling to new places? Do exotic locales, historic cities, natural wonders, relaxing retreats, and breathtaking views get your heart beating faster? Wouldn’t you love to have both more reasons and more opportunities to experience the joys of travel and tourism? If you answered yes to all of the above, and have the drive to write about it, you should consider the benefits of travel affiliate programs.
How Travel Affiliate Programs Can Help Your Passion Earn You More Money
The opportunity lies in the way that Millennials and other generations are changing the way people tend to travel.
That’s because it’s no longer very common for tourists to research or book their trips through traditional travel agents. More and more, they’re doing it all themselves online. Both in response to this shift and also driving it to some extent, online content about travel and tourism has been proliferating wildly in recent years.
By all appearances, this trend isn’t slowing down, either. Study after study has shown that Millennials, in particular, put a lot more value on creating memorable experiences than on owning consumer goods.
“Today, modern science has debunked the myth that consuming things made of atoms makes you happier. It does, but the happiness is short-lived. We now know that happiness through experiential consumption—going to festivals with friends, is long-lasting and highly preferential.” — Paul Cross, founder of Everfest
(From relate.zendesk.com)
What that means is that publishers are increasingly catering to this mindset. It’s not about the souvenirs. Rather, it’s about creating the most memorable and rewarding experiences for everyone involved.
Some products are still necessary, though. Travelers need appropriate clothing and gear depending on where they’re going and what they’ll be doing. They also need easy ways to get good leads on places to stay and tickets or reservations for events and restaurants.
Travel affiliate programs help travel writers to promote travel-related products and services to their audiences. In return for their marketing efforts, they can get commissions on sales and reservations.
The higher the quality of your content, and the more helpful it is to travelers trying to discover and plan for exciting places to visit, the more likely they’ll be to trust the affiliate links you provide.
The Top Programs to Consider Joining
Several major travel-related brands can provide you with affiliate links and ads. You can use these to boost your income and help your audiences at the same time.
Agoda
With a very non-technical and user-friendly setup process, and almost a million different places you can recommend, Agoda has made affiliate travel marketing really easy. Their listings include both hotels and private rentals, to appeal to more and bigger niches.
Booking.com
Booking is one of the world’s largest hotel reservation websites. Their affiliate program rewards publishers with a percentage of the commission that they themselves get from each completed reservation. It takes a little time to get your payouts, but the more referrals you send, the better they are.
Cruise Direct
Although cruises have lower conversion rates due to cost, that same cost results in much higher payouts per conversion. Cruise Direct offers worldwide cruise options, and their tracking cookie lasts for 45 days, so there’s plenty of time and reasons for your referral prospects to decide to buy.
Sandals
Part of the wider CJ Affiliate network, this well-known Caribbean luxury brand is a smaller niche with big possibilities. As a luxury offering, your payouts will be larger, but it’s only worth joining if your content is Caribbean-focused. They do offer fantastic support for their affiliates, though!
TripAdvisor
This is one of the most popular general travel advice brands out there, so it gives you a huge potential reach, including for restaurants and other experiences. They also run their affiliate program through the larger CJ Affiliate umbrella, so that opens up even more opportunities for publishers.
How Smart Funnel Helps
Smart Funnel helps publishers and affiliates connect with each other. We discover the best ways for your business to drive more lead generating traffic and generate more revenue through the mutually beneficial partnerships of affiliate marketing. This includes using travel affiliate programs. Contact us today to start accelerating your whole sales funnel the smart way!
