Tag Archives: Travel

Finding Budget and Affordable Travel Deals

Finding reasonable budget travel is not always easy! Affordable accommodations and ways to travel often leave you trying to find last minute vacation deals or booking over a year in advance (which is not always possible when vacation dates may change). It is also hard to travel during the peak summer getaway season when everyone is looking for an affordable vacation. The good news is that budget travel does not need to be that hard to find anytime of the year! Here are a few helpful tips to finding budget and affordable travel deals for transportation and accommodations in popular travel destinations all year round.

The place many people begin their search for affordable travel deals is online. Travel websites like FareCompare and Travelocity are definitely helpful and allow you to be flexible while searching for airfares, car rentals, and hotel accommodations; but they can’t always find the best budget travel deals. This is because their databases often do not search many of the discount airlines or local vacation rentals that offer the best prices to vacationers.

Visiting budget airlines’ websites directly and comparing the cost of their flights to the flights you find on large airfare search sites is definitely one way to make sure you are getting the best affordable travel deals. It is also very time consuming and by the time you finish comparing flights, the price you wanted could have long flown away! The problem is only compounded when you then have to find and book hotel or vacation rental accommodations and ground transportation for sightseeing and tours at the best price during your stay. If you factor in the cost of your time and energy that you have spent planning your vacation, along with flights, tours and accommodations, now you are getting expensive.

There is a way around the hassle of piecing together affordable travel: you can contact a professional travel consultant or tour operator whose job is to find the best deals and combine them into package offers! A traveler might expect the cost of a travel consultant to add to the cost of a vacation, but tour operators have several advantages to offering the best budget travel deals. In many cases, tour operators have long term relationships with cruise lines, airlines, tour guides, motor coach companies, hotels, and resorts. These relationships were built over time and allow tour operators to get the best prices from their travel associates and pass the savings on. Another key budget friendly fact about tour operators is that they have buying power! Since group travel dealers buy in bulk, the savings they receive can be passed on to you, just like other wholesale sellers.

If you are looking for affordable travel deals, make sure to sign up for tour operators’ newsletters and deal alerts so that you do not miss vacation packages to destinations you want to travel to. Tour operators work yearly to create escorted vacations that showcase every season and are the easiest way to find budget and affordable travel deals.

 

Why Your Business Needs Corporate Travel Management

Are you a manager or business owner constantly finding yourself sending employees and sales people to conventions, networking events, and seminars all around the country? You are probably finding the process a bit stressful and have already tried different techniques to make things easier. If you have not made much progress in streamlining your corporate travel, it’s understandable. After all, organizing corporate travel can be a challenging task regardless of the size of your corporation. That’s why you should contract a corporate travel management firm. An established firm has the experience and expertise that will make your business travel organization a walk in the park. You would be surprised at how much time and money you can save on your corporate travel operations by allowing a professional to tweak, track, and trim a few things here and there.

If you have been organizing your corporate travel in house, it’s time to allocate your time more effectively and outsource your travel management to a firm. Did you know that you could be saving money on corporate travel expenses in more ways than one? Whether your employees are attending seminars in the US or traveling abroad to expand international markets, you will be able to benefit from the services of a corporate travel manager. From discounts on airline travel and hotels to important expense accounting tricks, a travel management firm has that special sauce that helps your company save.

One of the most attractive advantages to working with a corporate travel management firm is the savings on airfare. If you decide to partner with a large firm who purchases airline tickets in bulk you will easily pay for the management fees using the savings you realize on airfares alone. By working with a travel management service you increase your buying power by orders of magnitude and keep more cash in your expense account. Another way business travel firms can save money for your firm is by connecting your employees ahead of time with several discounted hotels so you don’t just save money on hotel costs, but your employees save time researching hotels. And, as we all know, time is money.

Another excellent benefit of travel management that should not be understated is the tax and corporate accounting advice that is included. A good travel management company will have a unique way of recording and combining travel expenses that allows you to deduct more taxable expenses from your corporate income taxes. If you have not considered, recorded and tracked every single transaction that is accounted for during a corporate voyage (which includes food, drinks, an entertainment expenses) then your company is paying too much in taxes. The key is to write off everything related to every business travel. This is a smart and perfectly legal method that can save your company even more money. You might be thinking about the absolute nightmare of tracking every employee travel expense, but don’t worry, your travel manager will have that figured out too.

Corporate travel management firms these days are incredibly savvy when it comes to technology. Many firms offer a free app that allows each employee to track every single expense as they go about their day on any given trip. The data is uploaded to the app server in real time allowing you to track expenses, compare to other employees and generally keep an eye on which expenses are being billed to the corporate account and why. If you prefer not to see or deal with this information, you can simply request a status report at the end of each month or after each trip and the firm will deliver a summary of all expenses to your smartphone or laptop.

Corporate travel management is crucial for any corporation whether big or small. Keeping track of expenses, obtaining cheap airfares and hotel stays as well as keeping the expense accounting up to par is not a luxury, it is critical for staying competitive and running an efficient business. Most travel management firms will charge a reasonable fee that will pay for itself with a portion of the savings realized. Besides, what is the dollar value that you place on your own time and that of your employees? Any wise business owner or corporate manager knows that time is money.

Travel and Tourism Degree and Certificate Options

Enrollment in an accredited school or college can help you find your way to an exciting career. There are different opportunities available to help prepare for numerous professions inside the field of travel and tourism. Studies can be completed at various levels to allow for the training to meet your individual needs and goals. Enrollment options will vary by educational training program, but will help you to enter the same careers. By learning more about travel and tourism degree and certificate options, you can begin training for the career of your dreams.

Education

Different higher education programs offer training in travel and tourism to help prepare you for an exciting career. Studies can be completed at the certificate, associate, bachelor, and master degree levels. Coursework and training can vary but will typically require up to one year for certificate programs. Associate degree programs can take two years to complete. Bachelor degrees will require four years of training, and master degree programs will take an additional two years of study. Training can be completed in order to carry out tasks assisting travelers with reservations, cruises, and much more. You can start by enrolling in a program and discovering the available careers.

Careers

There are many different career choices available for you to choose from when looking to become a professional in his field. accredited studies will help you obtain the information that is needed to work in a variety of places. You can look forward to entering the workforce as a professional:

  • Travel Clerk
  • Travel and Tourism Manager
  • Travel Agents
  • Travel Coordinators
  • …and many other related hospitality professions.

Opportunities for employment include working in hotels, property management companies, reservation departments, and various other businesses. By enrolling in an accredited educational training program you can prepare for the career of your dreams by studying various subjects.

Coursework

Training will cover a variety of topics that are related to the level of education being pursued as well as the desired career. You can expect to learn hospitality, accounting, travel destinations, and many other courses related to the field. With an accredited training center you can study bookkeeping, reservation systems, sales techniques, transportation, and more. Training will cover different topics to allow you the chance to receive the quality education that you deserve. Start the path to a new career and find a program that fits your needs and goals.

Accredited travel and tourism degrees offer the best quality educational training available to you. Higher education programs are designed to help you prepare for an exciting future and career. Accrediting agencies like the Accrediting Council for Continuing education and Training ( http://www.accet.org/ ) can fully accredit schools and colleges that meet all criteria and provide the appropriate training for your goals. Start by researching programs in order to find the one that is best for you and request additional information. Start the path to the career you dream of by enrolling in an accredited program today.

DISCLAIMER: Above is a GENERIC OUTLINE and may or may not depict precise methods, courses and/or focuses related to ANY ONE specific school(s) that may or may not be advertised at PETAP.org.

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