While there are not a ton of travel ticket and event ticket affiliate programs out there, there are a couple that truly shine above the rest. Whether you have a blog in which you talk about your travels, just feel travel would be a great way to monetize your site, or if you actually have a travel site and are looking to make commissions from hotel bookings and airfare – there are options available .
An affiliate program is really just a commission structure that pays "success traffic". If I send you to a travel site I have an affiliate relationship with, and you buy a ticket, that site will pay me a commission. You can think of it as an advertising fee if you'd like. The problem with a travel affiliate program is getting connected to one that has access to the complete network of airlines, hotels, rental car companies, cruise ships, ticketmaster system and more.
Including an affiliate link to one hotel in New York, for example, is not very productive because you've bypassed the typical buying process. What you need to have is a system that links to a hotel booking engine so the user can do their research. When buying airlines tickets, hotel rooms or rental cars – consumers first do research to determine the best offer and then do one of two things. 1. they buy right then and there out of convenience or 2. they go to the site they really want to use knowing what the lowest price is and either pay the higher price to shop at their favorite site or feel good about getting the best rate .
Either way, you need to have links to engines like Travelocity, Ticketmaster or Hotels.com. Featuring a bed and breakfast might be cute, but make sure the link goes to a booking engine where the user can stay somewhere else if they want to, and you still get paid.