Major sporting events are a huge money maker for travel agents thanks to increased demand and subsequent higher hotel rates and airfares.
Prior to the event fans are willing to spend whatever necessary to ensure they’re able to cheer on their faves in person.
But did you know travel agents can still make a profit from these sporting ‘stans’ while the games are taking place?
We’re not just talking about post-event tourism – this is when they’ve seen their team playing in the destination and added it to their future bucket list.
We’re talking about fans sitting at home cheering on their team and deciding mid-game that they want to watch the next one in person.
Travel agents can make a lot of money off of these last minute bookers by knowing when to target them.
Online flight booking site, Cheapflights, used the weekend’s big Rugby World Cup (RWC) games to determine at what points during matches do fans start searching for flights that will get them to the next game.
In New Zealand, searches remained static during the All Blacks vs Springboks match, this was due to the relatively tied score.
However, 30 minutes after the final whistle and the All Blacks’ potential win became apparent, searches on flights from Auckland or Wellington to London jumped 17 percent and 19 percent.
In the hours after the team’s big win, demand leveled out to a 12 percent increase.
In Australia, search traffic was substantially more at half-time. This spike was followed by another surge of interest at full-time, when the Wallabies had won the semi-final.
Overall, searches on flights to London from Australia have increased 18 percent, with the majority (46 percent) emanating from the Sydney area, followed by Melbourne (21 percent) and Brisbane (14 percent).
Travel agents can utilise this information by monitoring major games and use social media to push out marketing or deals at peak moments throughout games.
It’s a little late for the Rugby World Cup, but perhaps you can make a few dollars from targeting car racing fans during next month’s Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix or the Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.