Thanks to the internet, traveling the world has never been easier or more affordable! A couple of decades ago, it was almost impossible for some people to finance a vacation. Many of the cheap vacation packages advertised in magazines and newspapers were scams or timeshare schemes. Travel agencies were able to offer good deals to consumers; unfortunately, the options were limited.

These days, anybody can plan a trip and save tons of money in the process! Hotels, airlines, resorts, cruise lines, car rental companies, and travel agencies all around the world can connect with travelers online. If you want to travel anywhere, all you have to do is look online to find all the latest deals. You can do research on online travel agencies to ensure that they are legitimate. You can also read reviews on thousands of hotels to learn about other travelers’ experiences with them.

If anything, you might feel overwhelmed with all of your options. The only downside to internet travel deals is that they are really hard to sort through! What if you choose one vacation package, only to find another one that would have saved you more money? Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to narrow down your choices and to find the cheapest bargains possible.

Here are some tips for finding the best vacation packages on the internet:

Do a search for travel coupons and promotional codes. Sites such as GimmeMoreCoupons will keep you updated on all the latest offers. Gimme More Coupons will give you special codes that you can use when booking your vacation. These codes will help you save up to 50% on hotels, 20% on airfare, and more!
Sign up to receive travel alerts whenever a new offer is available. You can request to be notified whenever a plane ticket or hotel room goes on sale at a price you can afford. These alerts can be sent to your email, iPod, Smart Phone, or other portable device.
Use aggregators for finding deals. Aggregator sites, such as Travelocity and Expedia, will compare multiple travel agencies, hotels, cruise lines, and airlines at once. You can search through all travel outfits to find the best deals. This type of service is completely free, so you won’t have to worry about paying any travel agency fees.
Be flexible with your travel dates. Sometimes rates will vary daily, so you can save money if you aren’t picky about the flight times. When searching for deals, there is usually an option you can check if you are willing to be flexible. The search spider will show you all the rates AROUND the dates you specify, rather than ON the dates.
If, after you book your flight, the airline lowers the ticket price, you can request that you get a partial refund. Not many people realize this, but you can have the price of your ticket adjusted to reflect the changes in the rate. However, you must request it from the airline—you can’t just expect them to automatically refund some of your money.
Consider a specialized package. Sometimes you can save money if you agree to check out a hotel’s golf course or spa. This isn’t the same thing as a timeshare, since you would be enjoying the activities even if you didn’t order the package. If you are planning on doing something or attending a show or golf course anyway, then you might as well search for special vacation packages so that you can save money.
Following these tips will help you save a lot of money on travel. No matter where you want to go, you can finance your trip if you take advantage of special discounts and offers! If you come across any travel coupons, all you have to do is copy and paste (or manually type) them into the registration form when you are booking your trip.

When it comes to the choice between using an online travel agency or not for your next trip, there are several factors to consider with several pros and cons.

One of the main concerns that seem to arise with online travel agencies is the trustworthiness and security of paying such large amounts of money online. While online security is a major factor for any online travel agency, this is true of all online businesses. So it is more a matter of choosing a travel agency online with a quality reputation by looking at their customer reviews and see what their actual site itself is like. What’s more, when you are logging on and preparing to pay for any online costs, there should always be that small symbol of a lock at the bottom right hand side of the screen as a sign of the level of security attached.

The benefits of using online travel agencies are that unlike their physical counterparts, they are available at any time, ideal for emergency travel situations, and also for any late after-hours bookings that you need to complete. Additionally you can compare travel deals and special available all over the world in order to find the very best deal for you and your travels. What this means is that while a physical travel agency will have a great range of deals for you, they are limited by who they can work with in terms of other travel professionals. With these online agencies, it up to you to decide who you work with, allowing you to create your ideal travel plans.

What you may also find when working with online travel agencies that you will have a great range of methods to pay for the holiday, offering greater flexibility and financial choice. These choices can range from the standard credit cards and accounts to payment plans and travel accounts.

Overall when talking online travel agencies it is more a matter of preference of the customer and how they prefer to do their business, either online or in person, that should dictate how they book their travel plans.

The Internet which was virtually unknown to masses a couple of decades ago has now become the life blood of many economies and societies. This global phenomenon has brought the human kind closer than ever before. Ranging from information websites to novel concepts of social networking, Internet has become a way of life for many people.

According to Internetworldstats.com only 16 million people used the Internet in 1995, where as today over 1200 million surf the cyber space which amounts to nearly 20% of the world population. The growth of the Internet has created a whole new dimension in doing business as well. The speed of information and the convenience has made online a promising venture for many markets.

In travel industry around a decade ago, travel agents had a better say when it came to selling travel solutions than its original providers such as airlines and hotels etc. But today the increased use of online travel has made it easy for the consumer to plan and book their travel needs easily on their own over the Internet. Hotels, airlines and other travel service providers are able to directly get in touch with customers through the Internet.

Online travel portals and websites also have an upper hand over conventional travel agents on costs as well. The traditional travel agent requires more manpower and huge investments to expand its business where as an online portal can get in touch with the whole world through a single domain purchase. However, the intense competition among online travel portals and various hospitality websites have reduced intermediary commission rates thus offering far more economic value to online transactions.

Internet research firm predicts that by 2009 roughly one third of all U.S travel revenues will be handled via Internet. Other parts of the world such as Europe and emerging giants such as India and China will also contribute heavily to the growth of online travel industry.

With the growing number of Internet users and the boom in travel industry in many emerging economies will continue to contribute to the growth of online travel industry in coming years.

If you’re like most people, you’ve at one point or another given some thought to the idea of running your own home based business. Just imagine, firing your boss, working in your PJs, having the time and financial freedom to do what you want, when you want.

But then reality hits. What are the odds that it could work out? How would you find the time to start a business? Wouldn’t it be outrageously expensive? And with so many choices, how would you ever find the perfect business opportunity without being taken advantage of? So you continue with the status quo, trading hours for money, dreaming of a better life.

Sound familiar? Do you know that the definition of insanity is to continue to repeatedly do the same thing, expecting different results? Not that you’re insane. It’s just that our parents, schools, and culture taught most of us to go to school, work hard, get a good job, and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, this isn’t working out so well for many of us.

If you’re ready to take control of your future and create a life by design rather than by chance, I have good news for you. There’s an affordable way for you to own a home based business that doesn’t involve buying inventory, doing home parties, or selling high priced goods that your family and friends can get at a discount store at an affordable price. Believe me, I’ve spent many years searching for a work from home opportunity and was fortunate enough to stumble upon a rather unique concept; that of owning an online travel agency.

You may ask, so what’s different about travel? For starters, there’s no inventory. No products for you to buy and keep in a corner of your garage. In fact, an online travel agent has no mandatory costs, other than a startup fee and website hosting fees. There are many companies offering online travel agencies for sale, and the price tags vary astoundingly across the board. If you choose to look into this type of business don’t get discouraged by startup costs. There are excellent, highly respected businesses for sale that are affordable!

How about product price? As an online travel agent you’re offering services (travel) that are comparatively priced with other online travel agencies. How’s that compare to the ultra expensive vitamins you could be selling? Your family and friends may not buy what they consider to be overpriced vitamins from you, but what if you could offer them travel at a price that’s competitive with other travel agencies?

Which leads me to the issue of desirability. Sticking with the example of vitamins, would you say that most people you know have a strong desire to spend their money on vitamins? Unless you have very health conscious friends, the answer to this is probably no. How about travel? Do most of the people you know have a strong desire to travel? As an online travel agent you’ll be selling recess, while others are selling geography!

Have you thought about starting a home based business, but been worried that it would require too much of your time? Let’s face it, most of us can’t quit our day jobs to pursue dreams of making it on our own in the first month or so. I’ve found that an online travel business doesn’t demand a lot of time, and can be run in the nooks and crannies of your day. This is a turnkey business in that you won’t need to spend time building a booking website, reserving travel for others, or tracking purchases. You’ll receive a fully functional booking site along with customer support and tracking, and your customers book their own travel from you, just as they would from any other online booking site. Your main job is to point others to your website. This can be done simply by handing business cards to family, friends, co-workers, etc., and asking them to bookmark your site and compare your prices the next time they’re planning a trip. No hard selling involved!

Naturally, you can build your business more aggressively and quickly if you’d like. As an online travel agent you’ll have opportunities to make more money more quickly if you’re able to dedicate 5 to 10 hours per week to your business. Some possibilities include booking and marketing group travel, specializing in honeymoon registries, or obtaining corporate travel accounts. If you choose to investigate companies that sell online travel agencies, be sure to look for those that offer this type of niche marketing, and that provide training on these specialties.

What about the economy? Actually, the travel industry is booming, and is expected to almost double over the next 10 years. Let’s face it, in a struggling economy many of us will forgo that expensive latte every day before work, or possibly brown bag it instead of buying lunch every day. But we work our butts off all year for that one little stretch of time that we call vacation. Quality time spent with our loved ones, relaxing and enjoying whatever it is we most enjoy. This is the one precious reward that we look forward to all year and unless things are drastically bad, we’ll make sure that we don’t lose this glorious respite.

You may be thinking, this sounds pretty good. Well, it gets even better! Home businesses offer incredible tax savings. In fact the tax laws were written years ago with the intention of rewarding business owners, and this is the one best legal method of keeping more of your hard earned money in your own pockets.

Ordinary home expenses such as Internet charges, mileage expenses, cell phones, etc. can become tax deductions to those who own home based businesses. Cool, huh? Well, as an online travel agent, you’ll be entitled to the customary tax deductions, in addition to deductions on personal travel. This is a way to turn your vacations into paycations! The logic here is simple. Every time you travel you gain an experience that you can share with potential clients. Great resort, great recommendation. Lousy service, poor recommendation. Each vacation you take makes you more capable of selling vacations to others. Does it get any better than that?

Actually, yes! Online travel agents benefit from great travel industry perks, including low cost FAM trips, commissions paid on personal travel, and occasional free upgrades.

If this concept sounds fun, lucrative, and inviting, you have two choices. The first, taken by most, is to think about how cool this could be, then go about your normal routine, unable to find the time to investigate. The second is to get on the computer and start researching possibilities. Personally, I went for option number two, and am ecstatic about the great choice I made!