Cheap travel has long been a much sought after item on the agenda for many individuals. Online travel agents tempt consumers with promises of the lowest fares and best rates on the Internet. Some offer to match the lowest fare if one can be found elsewhere. The cheap travel business sector has much potential in this respect, since demand for its services is always high.

Airfare is often subject to increased costs of airline fuel, higher taxes and the competitive landscape. Getting the lowest fares can often be a matter of shopping around with different travel agents, as well as trying different dates and times of year. The cheap travel business segment can make its greatest profits during peak season with a good commission deal pre-arranged with the airlines. Off-peak seasons would naturally force the price down to stay in line with the competition.

Traditional travel agents with a physical store may find it more expensive to keep their business in operation to generate profits compared to a travel agent who maintains their business over the Internet. Online agencies make up a large part of the cheap travel business segment, mainly because they can afford to provide their 24/7 services with the huge reduction in overheads. The completely automated system eliminates the need for trained staff to key in the data and provides appropriate travel solutions to the consumer in real time. The only costs that then need to be considered are the one-time cost of creating the website, the cost of web hosting, and IATA fees. These savings can then be passed on to the consumer, which makes them more competitive than traditional agents.

The cheap travel business allows consumers a chance to identify their specific needs and get a group rate for the entire package. For example, a customer who needs to fly from the US to Europe, may also require hotel accommodation, and transport within the destination country. Or they may have already booked the flight elsewhere and made arrangements for their stay, and may require only transport. Each individual requirement or all of them together can be prearranged. Grouping all of them together, however, can bring the overall price down by quite a bit. It's options like these that keep the cheap travel business booming.

Business owners stand to gain from reductions in travelling costs to an even larger extent. Cutting their expenses allows them to show better profits. The cheap travel business caters to small businesses which would otherwise not be able to afford too many trips abroad for their staff to attend conferences, client meetings, PR events, seminars, conventions, product launches and so on.

A number of online travel agents provide services that cater to business needs, such as locating the ideal venue for an event or arranging for accommodation for the staff, delegates, or guests of honour. Large businesses with a global staff would find it easier to arrange team building events or training courses or even award ceremonies and annual general meetings in a central location through the use of services like these. Corporate hospitality events, sales presentations and parties all have diverse requirements that need to be catered to in order to ensure a successful event that leaves everyone happy. An agent can prove to be an invaluable source of information and advice, which would save both time and money, allowing the management to redirect their attention to more pressing matters. In this way, a consumer or organization can benefit from a range of travel solutions catered to meet their personal needs at the best possible price.

Thus, it becomes apparent that the cheap travel business segment offers deals and savings on far more than simply airfare. There are some agencies that specialize and dedicate their services to conform to the needs of a specific type of industry, such as the pharmaceutical industry, which may have special requirements for some of their events. In providing detailed attention to these requirements, agents put themselves at the forefront of the competition in the travel business as they provide a much-needed value-added service for a reasonable price.

Support from these specialized agents could go beyond the boundaries of strictly travel services to cover everything including ensuring the proper layout has been maintained and all required equipment is in place and operable, ensuring that the catering arrangements are in order, meeting and greeting the client's guests, arranging for registration, assistance with the distribution of event portfolios and other related material, and providing support at the venue. Large organizations, once again, find that they get the best rates by booking large groups for these events.

The cheap travel business segment has much to offer in terms of real savings on expenses as well as time and hassle. Depending on one's specific needs, a tailor-made package that fits their budget is only a click or a phone call away.