How to Plan Your Next Vacation

Bea Broda: Oh hi! Well, you know we all know that taking a vacation package to the sunny south is an inexpensive way to travel but did you know that there are some enormous benefits and sometimes even some very unusual perks to booking those fall and winter vacations early. In fact, the Canadian trend to pre-planning and pre-booking these vacations early is on the rise. So much so that I’m her today to talk to an expert on that subject, Jonathan Carroll. Come with me. Jonathan, hey! Jonathan Carroll: Hi! How are you? Bea Broda: Nice to meet you. Thanks for taking the time. Jonathan Carroll: Anytime. Bea Broda: You know I’ve read that some 20% of people that are booking their fall and winter vacation sare booking them quite early. What would you say is the reason for that? Jonathan Carroll: It’s a couple of reasons. One we’ve seen that there is less airlines each hotel rooms in the market places somewhere and we’ve seen a significant decrease in the number of hotel rooms and airlines. So you’ll notice if you’re traveling on a plane, you’re seeing fuller planes going out. Also what were seeing is the consumer is now looking for the destination they want, for the week they want at the price they want and the hoteliers, the airlines and the tour operators have done a fantastic job to invite that consumer to book in advance. So there has been big discounts being delivered to the market place and it’s significance saving so when the consumer is weighing it against; do I book last minute or do I book in advance. There are saying, it pays to book in advance and I’ve got that sense of security that I have the destination I want for the price I want for the week I want. Bea Broda: Okay, so would you say that the benefits of booking well in advance far outweigh the benefits of say booking last minute? Jonathan Carroll: I think there is still benefits for booking last minute but what you’re seeing as a gradual change and a significant change from the consumer saying, ‘I want to book in advance’ and the consumer really dictates whether something is going to work or it’s not going to work and were seeing huge increases as far as people booking in advance. Bea Broda: But what other tips would you have to give us in terms of early book? Jonathan Carroll: Well there is so much information available online to the consumer right now. So it’s good to research the destination like you’re going to, the resort you’re going to and the tour operator and the travel agent that you’ll be working on your vacation. Look at the early booking bonuses and see what significant savings they are delivering to you and also look at the retail travel agency and saying, ‘what added value are you giving me to be one of your customers’ and they like what were doing at I Travel 2000 which is pretty exciting, it’s called “Let It Snow”. So it snows more than five inches on January 1, 2008. We’re giving you your vacation for free. Bea Broda: Wait a second, wait a second, okay, so on January 1, if you booked to vacation, it snows five inches, your vacation is free. Jonathan Carroll: Absolutely free minus the taxes because we always got to pay the government unfortunately but you get your vacation for free and it’s exclusive to I Travel 2000 and really excited. So not only do you get your early booking bonuses from the airlines, the hoteliers, you also get it from I Travel 2000 with “Let It Snow.” Bea Broda: That’s added incentive to pay attention to global warming. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Jonathan Carroll: Absolutely, so you know, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow and let is snow more.