When opportunity knocks, start packing

IT used to be Canadians would choose a vacation destination then look for a deal. But in the age of new media, the deals are increasingly determining vacationers' destination.

Google reports interest in cheap flights is growing at double the annual rate of the entire air category, based on Canadians' online searches. This dovetails with a recent TripAdvisor survey in which eight in 10 people said they'd take a spontaneous trip this summer if they found a great bargain.

"I like to call it 'opportunity travelling,' " says Chris Myden, founder of Canadian travel deal site YDeals.com. "It's for people who are open to all kinds of destinations, and are willing to build a trip around a deal."

Myden, who's based in Calgary, monitors airfare sales "constantly" and is more conservative than rival sites in terms of what he posts.

In most cases, he says he only advertises discounts that are 30 to 50 per cent below the rock-bottom price of a normal fare.

"There are so many companies out there trying to tell you there are great deals all the time," says Myden. "But the truly great ones don't come around very often."

Even so, the shift is turning the vacation paradigm on its head, with airlines routinely matching each other's best rates to compete for bottom line-driven travellers. For instance, when Dutch airline KLM recently announced flights to Turkey for half the usual fare, Air France, Austrian Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa and United all followed suit.

Among those who jumped on the deal was Vancouver's Jillian Walker, a 28-year-old human resources consultant who expertly leverages new media to travel on the cheap.

"Until I was about 25, my approach was the same as my parents': pick a place and then save for it. Now I do the opposite," says Walker, whose travel bank account allows her to jump on bargains when they come along.

"I went to Belize in 2011, which is somewhere I wouldn't have otherwise picked. I'm going to Istanbul this fall because of a deal. I went to Costa Rica because of a deal..."

Walker uses social media, as well as websites such as YDeals, Kayak, Vayama and Expedia, to seek the best bargains throughout the year. She takes roughly five trips annually, almost always allowing the deal to determine the destination.

"I know where to go, I know where not to waste my time, and I know what it costs to reach major cities," says Walker, who's become a veritable torchbearer for budget travel.

"Go to Kayak, (input that) you want 30 degree heat and want to travel in September with four people from Calgary, and let the site tell you where you're going."

The trend, however, could take a while to become the norm - if it does at all. That's because most deals require that travellers act quickly, sometimes booking within 48 hours of a discount fare's announcement.

According to joint research by Google and Ipsos, most Canadians still take an average 42 days to purchase tickets after thinking of a trip.

"Canadians are more cost-conscious now and definitely looking for deals in the airline space," says Sabrina Geremia, Google Canada's integrated solutions sales leader. "But most still have a long, interesting decision-making journey."

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 18, 2012 D2