Travel agency affiliate programs allow you to earn money online while writing about a subject you enjoy. Travel industry is a high earning industry where you have a chance to earn a lot. Leisure tourism spending surpassed $4.6 trillion in 2019, with 1.5 billion foreign visitor arrivals recorded.
Although the travel industry has faced major losses because of the coronavirus pandemic, we can bet it will recover. Our desire to travel hasn’t vanished; it’s simply taken a break. And, because starting a travel blog or website from scratch takes time, it’s a good idea to get started now so you’ll be ready to generate money when things return to normal.
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Expedia Travel Agency Affiliate Program
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Expedia is one of the largest travel businesses in the world, with over 140,000 properties to choose from across the world, as well as inexpensive flights, holiday packages, cruises, and car rentals.Customers can save up to $500 on combined airline and hotel tickets because of its network of more than 500 travel relationships with hotels and airlines..
Expedia’s loyalty program allows users to earn points that may be redeemed for future travel experiences, providing an additional incentive to book with the firm. Expedia affiliate commissions range from 2% to 6% depending on the type of successful referral you generate, ranging from car rentals to cruise tickets.
Expedia works directly with travel suppliers to negotiate low rates and a wide selection of travel options, allowing clients to save money on their travel plans. Rates can be up to 50% less expensive in some cases than they would be otherwise.
Expedia works directly with travel agencies, as well as affiliate marketers, to offer holiday packages, car rentals, hotel bookings, and activities.
URL:https://affiliates.expediagroup.com/home
Commission: 2% – 6%
Cookie duration: 7 days
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Booking.Com
Booking.com is a web-based travel firm that specializes in hotel bookings, airline tickets, and car rentals.With over 30 million bookable rooms in over 2.5 million hotels, it’s one of the most popular travel comparison sites on the planet.
Because of Booking.com’s excellent partner relationships, users never have to pay booking fees, allowing it to compete on price. It’s no wonder that Booking.com has one of the most popular affiliate programs in the industry, with over 12,500 travel affiliates signing up.
Whether they are travel bloggers, influencers, or anyone else, they earn 4% on all reservations. With a seven-day EPC of $160+, this is one of the best paid affiliate programs in the travel industry. Affiliates may also find discounts using a search box, as well as banner integration and deep linking options. The cookie window, on the other hand, is session-based, meaning you’ll only get paid if someone clicks on your referral link and converts immediately away. As a result, only warm, pre-qualified traffic should be delivered to Booking.com.
URL: https://www.booking.com/affiliate-program/v2/index.html
Commission: 4%
Cookie duration: Session-based
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Tripadvisor Travel Affiliate Program
You’re probably familiar with Tripadvisor as a review site. That is its primary goal, and it accomplishes it better than anybody else, with an estimated 884 million reviews by the end of 2020. It is, nevertheless, a booking portal for hotels and activities.
The Tripadvisor affiliate program focuses solely on lodging. Affiliate marketers receive a 50% commission on hotel bookings through Tripadvisor, but no commission on restaurants, rentals, flights or tourist attractions.
That 50% commission is already pretty lucrative, but it can rise as high as 80% during incentive promotions. Another unique aspect of this affiliate program is that you do not have to make a reservation to earn a commission. Instead, you are compensated each time a user from your site visits one of Tripadvisor’s booking partners. With conversion rates of 30% or more, the Tripadvisor program might be one of the most lucrative affiliate programs in the travel industry (provided you can drive enough traffic).
URL:https://ui.awin.com/merchant-profile/5986
Commission: 50%
Cookie duration: Two weeks
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Amazon Associates
You just don’t have to plan flights and hotels when you want to travel. Other essentials to acquire before a long vacation include luggage and travel adaptors, as well as clothes and sunglasses. And, when you’re in a hurry, where do you obtain all of that? Amazon.
Amazon Associates program’s terms aren’t exactly generous. Commissions vary by category; for example, you can make 4% on clothing sales but only 3% on sporting goods and a pitiful 1% on health and personal care products. In addition, because the cookie window is only 24 hours long, if your referrals aren’t highly qualified, you won’t get paid through the Amazon Associates affiliate program.
On the other hand, Amazon has a massive brand and is generally trusted, so convincing consumers to buy isn’t difficult. You also get a percentage of any sales made by your recommendations over the 24-hour period, so you could earn some extra cash.
URL: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/node/topic/GRXPHT8U84RAYDXZ
Commission: 4% on Apparel
Cookie duration: 24 hours
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Hotels.com
Hotels.com, as its name suggests, is a significant provider of hotel accommodations, with a network of over one million hotels in 200 countries. You’ll almost likely find a fancy resort or a cozy bed-and-breakfast here, whether you’re looking for a posh resort or a comfortable bed-and-breakfast.
Unlike some referral systems, Hotels.com has 85 specialized websites in over 35 languages, allowing you to reach a genuinely worldwide audience. However, be aware that it makes use of the Commission Junction affiliate network to run a number of affiliate programs, each aimed at a specific market of passengers.If you only join the affiliate program for the United States and Canada, you’ll only be paid commission on bookings made by consumers in those countries. Hotels.com allows affiliate marketers to promote unique vouchers to make life easier.
URL: https://www.hotels.com/page/travel-affiliate-program/
Commission: 4%
Cookie duration: 7 days
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G Adventures Travel Agency Affiliate Program
When it comes to small-group adventure travel G Adventures is the pioneer. Rather than planning all-inclusive vacations, its consumers want to live like a local in the Amazon, take a rail journey of North Asia, or go mountain climbing in Nepal. As a result, it operates in a very small market, although one that is expected to be worth $1.6 trillion by 2026.
The premium pricing is another advantage of the adventure travel segment. People aren’t necessarily looking for the lowest choice because these are often once-in-a-lifetime excursions. While a 6% commission rate may not seem like much, when you consider that G Adventures’ average order value is $2,600, it becomes a lot more appealing.
URL:https://www.gadventures.com/affiliate-program/
Commission: 6% per sale
Cookie duration: 60 days
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Travel Payouts
Travelpayouts is a pay-per-action affiliate network that offers a wide range of referral programs, from flights and hotel reservations to car rentals and insurance, unlike the other travel sites on this list, which are all brands with separate affiliate programs. Travelpayouts has over 90 travel affiliate programs, some of which are exclusive to the affiliate network, from brands including Vrbo, Hilton Honors and Tripadvisor.
Referral partners receive up to 70% of the earnings generated by the Travelpayouts affiliate network. In fact, this implies that affiliate marketers can earn 1.1 percent to 1.15 percent of the entire booking value on flights and 4% to 5% on hotel bookings.
Commission: Varies
Cookie duration: Varies
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Kayak
Kayak effectively manages its own travel affiliate network because it owns a number of brands, including HotelsCombined, Momondo, and, well, Kayak. These brands generate over six billion travel searches each year, work with over two million properties, and pay out over $76 million in affiliate commissions.
We think getting access to various travel affiliate programs with just one signup is a fairly decent offer. It gets much better when you consider Kayak’s 50% commission rate. The only major drawback is the payment threshold: you won’t receive any commissions until you achieve $500 in profits.
URL: https://affiliates.kayak.com/
Commission: 50%
Cookie duration: 30 days
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Viator
With over 395,000 attractions and things to do in 2,500 destinations, Viator is essentially a one-stop shop for such experiences. It spans over 35 languages and accepts cancellations up to 24 hours in advance on 85 percent of its affiliate items. It also includes a database of over one million reviews to help users make the best choice.
Affiliate marketers will find it much easier to monetise the visitors they refer to as a result of this.
Each booking earns travel bloggers and other content partners an 8% reward, and the 30-day cookie is longer than many of the referral programs on this list.
URL:https://partnerresources.viator.com/
Commission: 8%
Cookie duration: 30 days
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World Nomads Travel Agency Affiliate Program
With its multiple travel insurance packages covering more than 200 activities as well as trip cancellation and medical crises, World Nomads caters to what it refers to as the “intrepid” travel market. It comes highly recommended by many well-known travel brands, like Lonely Planet, which is a huge benefit.
The company’s ethical credentials are another key selling feature. More than 70% of its customers make a micro-donation when obtaining an insurance policy . World Nomads has raised more than $3 million through this method over the years, which has aided over 100 initiatives around the world.
As if there wasn’t enough reason for affiliate marketers to promote World Nomads, the company’s affiliate program pays out 10% per eligible sale and has a 60-day cookie window.
URL: https://partner.worldnomads.com/
Commission: 10%
Cookie duration: 60 days
The Takeaway
Travel agency affiliate programs have a lot of earning potential. That’s not even taking into account the fact that three major travel sites — Airbnb, Hotels Combined, and Skyscanner — have halted their affiliate programs as of the time of writing.
To compete with the other travel bloggers, you’ll need to develop a travel website, conduct keyword research, and publish high-quality content. That’s before you’ve even considered the best affiliate programs for your target demographic. It’s a lot of labor. But it’s not out of the question.
