Traveller Profile: The Tourist

If you've taken the quiz in the previous post, you may have discovered that you fit the profile of the Tourist.  Most people will usually cringe at this term because who really wants to be known as the outsider. However, being the tourist is not necessarily a bad thing nowadays! Tourists are finding newer ways to see their desired destinations! So let's take a look at the average Tourist profile:

• Tourists will usually take a trip anywhere from 3 to 7 days in length.  
• They will use most conventional methods to travel including flying, driving or taking the train.
• Their destinations will usually be a popular place they saw in an ad or television.
• They usually like to explore the historical and popular landmarks of the city.

This is the pretty basic tourist profile and most people have fit into this profile for generations of travel.  However, these days many people are looking for ways to travel that will enable them to see the same popular places while saving some money.  These "new-age tourists" have turned to many methods, such as the internet, to land deals on some pretty exclusive vacations.  Many tourists are also opening their minds to new, not so known destinations, that are growing increasingly popular because of the amount of amenities you get for your buck.  

What are some of the qualities of a New Age Tourists?

• They will turn to the internet to find deals that save them anywhere from 10% to 75% on some popular destinations.  Some of these popular destinations offer all-inclusive solutions where they can stay and eat for one price.
• They learn about the cities in which they travel, researching low-key hot-spots that are affordable and fun. 
• They use popular social networks to get connected to people who currently reside at their destinations.

The advent of the internet has made it so easy to identify and travel to new hot-spots while keeping great control on their budgets.  Most people have been able to travel with a family or group of 4 to 5 people and spend half of what the average tourists did, even just 10 years ago!  

So what's the next step? 

What you need:

Pen and Paper

Travel Section of the newspaper/travel magazine

A computer

Index cards or a piece of blank paper, divided into 6 pieces

Steps:

1. Using the paper/magazine,  identify three to four places that you may be interested in travelling to. Write down the destination, the price the newspaper is offering (if there is one) and the phone number for the travel agent offering the destination deal.
2. Write down each destination on it's own index card/piece of paper.  Don't forget to include the deal price, amount of nights and whether or not the deal includes airfare.
3. Open the internet explorer on your computer. 
4. Search out each destination by first entering the place you want to go.  If you see any deals pop up, go ahead and click on them, write down the website, price of the deal, amount of nights and if it includes airfare.  Return to the search page.
5. Do a thorough search of each destination, including the local news, weather and any current events happening. After you have done this for all destinations, choose one or two destinations only, that fit your travel destination criteria.  
6. Using websites such as - Orbitz, HotWire, Kayak and Travelocity, search for the dates that you would like to travel.  Choose the Flight+Hotel option so that you can find a combo deal on the flight and hotel.  You will be offered different hotel and flight combinations. Your goal is to stay under the price that was listed in the newspaper or magazine, or perhaps get more for the same amount ( e.g. 8 nights for the price of 5 nights)
7. Make sure you scroll the entire website and look for all the different hotel and flight combinations. Usually the deals will be the same on each website, off by a few dollars but you can always check just to see if there may be a big difference.  Be sure to check the homepages because they may be having sales on other destinations (you may just decide to go there first!)  Write down all information on each destinations index card/paper.
8. Now here's the fun part.  Go back to your search bar and enter "Orbitz (or whichever site you chose) coupons 2011"  Variations of this may be "Orbitz coupon codes" "orbitz discount codes" "orbitz promo codes".  Scan the websites and look for any codes that give you anywhere from from 10% to 30% or $10 to $50 off your booking.  Any other amounts may be a bit sketchy.

And that's the first part to saving money on your vacation!  If these steps have worked and you were able to not only save money on the deal using the website, but also obtain an extra discount using the codes then you have successfully completed the first step.  Don't forget to make an account on the website you have chosen using your vacation email and save your itinerary!

Stay tuned for upcoming blogs with more tips on how to save money while traveling! 

Stay Thrifty and Safe Travels!