Chain stores have Black Friday. Online marketplaces have Cyber Monday. For local businesses, it's Small Business Saturday.
In the last 20 years, more segments of the retail industry have vied for their own piece of the holiday shopping season. The travel trade has firmly joined the trend with another post-Thanksgiving sales push: Travel Tuesday.
On the same day as the nonprofit world's Giving Tuesday, airlines, hotels, cruise ship companies, travel booking platforms and tour operators get in on the annual spirit to spend by promoting one-day deals. Consumer advocates say there are legitimate savings to be had but also chances to be misled by marketing that conveys a false sense of urgency.
"People see ‘40 percent off’ and assume it’s a once-in-a-lifetime steal, without recognizing that the underlying price may have been inflated or that the same itinerary was cheaper last month.” Sally French, a travel expert at personal finance site NerdWallet, said.
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She and other seasoned travelers advised consumers who want to see if they can save money by booking trips on Travel Tuesday to do research in advance and to pay especially close attention to the fine print attached to offers.
People hoping to score last-minute deals for Christmas or New Year's should double-check for blackout dates or other restrictions, recommended Lindsay Schwimer, a consumer expert for the online travel site Hopper.
It’s also wise to to keep an eye out for nonrefundable fares, resort fees, double occupancy requirements or upgrade conditions that may be hidden within advertised discounts, according to French.
Shoppers should be wary of travel packages with extra transportation options or add-on offers, French said. Instead of lowering fares or room rates, some companies use statement credits, extra points, included amenities and bundled extras as a way to tempt potential customers, she said.
“Many travel brands want to keep sticker prices high to maintain an aura of luxury, but they still need to fill planes, ships and hotel rooms,” French said. “Add-on perks are their workaround.”
Consumers who are prepared rather than impulsive and on the lookout for the up-sell are in a much better position to identify authentic bargains, consumer experts stressed. Knowing what a specific trip would typically cost and comparison shopping can help expose offers based on inflated underlying costs and whether the same itinerary might have been cheaper at other times, they said.
“Compare prices, check your calendar and make sure the trip you’re booking is something you genuinely want, not something you bought because a countdown timer pressured you," French said. "What gets glossed over is that the best deal might be not booking anything at all if it doesn’t align with your plans.”
Travel Tuesday came about based on existing industry trends. In 2017, Hopper analyzed historical pricing data and found that in each of the nine previous years, the biggest day for post-Thanksgiving travel discounts was the day after Cyber Monday.
The site named the day Travel Tuesday. The number of offers within that time-targeted window and the number of travelers looking for them has since expanded.
“Nearly three times as many trips were planned on Travel Tuesday last year compared to Black Friday,” Hopper's Schwimer said. “We continue to see growth in the day, year over year, as more travel brands and categories offer deals.”
The event's origin story is in line with the National Retail Federation coining Cyber Monday in 2005 as a response to the emerging e-commerce era. American Express came up with Small Business Saturday in 2010 to direct buyers and their dollars to smaller retailers, credit card fees and all.
A report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company last year noted that November and December tend to be slow months for travel bookings, making Travel Tuesday a “marketing moment” that could help boost revenue.
Hotel, cruise and and airline bookings by U.S. travelers increased significantly on Travel Tuesday 2023 compared with the two weeks before and after the day, the report's authors wrote, citing data provided by the travel marketing platform Sojern.
While Travel Tuesday so far has been mostly confined to the United States and Canada, “European travel companies can anticipate the possibility that Travel Tuesday will become a growing phenomenon in their region, given that other shopping days such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have spread beyond North America,” the report stated.
Vivek Pandya, lead insights analyst for Adobe Analytics, which tracks online spending, said consumers have more tools than ever this holiday season to help them determine if deals hold up to scrutiny.
“Social journeys, influencers providing promo codes and values, and generative AI platforms taking all that in - the prices, the social conversation, the reviews - and giving guidance to the consumer, that's a very different, dynamic kind of journey consumers are taking than they have in previous seasons,” Pandya said.
Both he and French emphasized that prices rise and fall based on multiple factors, and that the winter holidays are not the only major promotional period of the year.
“We now have dozens of consumer spending ‘holidays,’” French said. “Amazon alone keeps adding new versions of Prime Day. So if you don’t buy on Travel Tuesday, you haven’t missed your moment.”
