For those of you who travel like I do know the airport boarding process all too well. It feels like zones 1 through 1500 board first, and by the time you finally get on, the overhead bins are already full, let us not forget about the person greeting you who always has a smile, but the only thing missing, I think, is the high five! Well after that, there is also the famous final boarding call, where your luggage will be removed in the next 5.6 milliseconds if you’re not at the gate yet. I’m never part of that final call, yet it still gives me anxiety.
Well, when it comes to holiday space, we’re at that final boarding call too. Now, you’re likely asking why we’re even mentioning this. Here’s a trend we’re seeing that’s worth sharing: we track buyer behavior monthly, with data dating back 16 years. Over a 12-month period, this behavior shifts 9 times, making projections part art, not all science. This year, something peculiar has been happening, which we anticipated as a possibility a year ago. While long-term bookings are up, last-minute requests for the festive season have started as expected. For obvious reasons, there was a slight pause in plans for this season, which is understandable. That pause now seems to be over, so we wanted to share a video showcasing where we’re finding 11th-hour availability. Destinations range from parts of Peru to Egypt to Kenya to Sri Lanka to Guatemala.
One of the many amazing things I’ve seen our team do is their ability not only to find availability when it seems impossible but to make even the most last-minute reservations come to life. They find the proverbial needle in the haystack while ensuring that quality and product integrity remain our primary focus, as always.
Enjoy the video, and remember—34 days left until the festive period. This is your final boarding call…
Ordinarily, the travel season over the year-end holidays starts on a Friday or Saturday, occurring around the 3rd week of December. This year is no different and it seems the last-minute planners are on the rise. I was always taught to quantify any statement you make using numbers. So here goes… we have 77 days left before the festive travel season starts, and it’s going by quickly.
Since quantifying is like a hobby for me, let me go further. We track the behavior of our travelers’ buying habits looking for a trend in last-minute travel vs planning further out. Now you likely already see a trend with your clients, however when you track this the way we do, what jumps out is how many times the buying habits change. Approximately 9 times in 12 months. Even more so in a year when there is an event such as an election. That means the team at Big Five has gotten good at adapting to your travelers who want to leave next year vs right now. From planning an excursion to Guatemala with only a few weeks’ notice to planning a safari 14 months from now, our specialists know how to move mountains.
This year we are gearing up to move many more due to the last-minute festive requests which have started to increase; and in many cases, though not all, we are finding space. Right around this time, space booked earlier in the year becomes available again. Due to Big Five’s excellent relationships, we usually get first access. Whether that means Tanzania, Egypt, Peru, or Uruguay, we are finding those pockets of space. From private villas in Jose Ignacio, to the boutique hotels in the Sacred Valley, to lesser-known safari camps in the Serengeti, to private dahabiyas in Egypt, the impossible is possible at times.
Enjoy the video, and speaking to the procrastinator in all of us… 77 days and counting.
