Here’s How They Can Be A Great Idea! or Not!
You’re looking for the perfect gift to give that graduate, or those newlyweds, or a loved one at Christmas. They are not Home Depot or Kmart shoppers or maybe they are but you want to be just a bit more creative.
What’s the answer? give them travel gift vouchers, also known as travel gift cards. They can use the card to pay for any travel deals they find.
We tend not to think about travel as a legitimate potential gift, mainly because of scheduling and pricing; the traveler needs to work out their own travel arrangements, finding cheap airline tickets and hotel deals. If you buy a voucher that’s only good for a particular airline or hotel, the recipient may not use that airline for 16 years. You don’t want to buy a voucher that will only pay for Cancun travel deals if Uncle Joe hates warm weather.
The key in including travel cards in your gift-giving toolkit is to make sure the voucher is flexible. You want to choose a company that is most likely to offer the kind of travel services wanted by the target of your generosity. Many companies no doubt make a nice profit when they sell gift travel gift vouchers and gift cards that are never redeemed. We want to avoid that!
One option would be to purchase a Visa or Mastercard with a prepaid credit balance. Those can be used for a variety of purchases and might be the way to go. However, there could be the temptation for the recipient to use that credit on something other than a vacation. So if your desire is to really encourage them to look for travel deals, and to use the credit for airfare and hotel reservations, you need to be a bit more specific.
One of the best ways we’ve found to obtain nice travel gift vouchers that will encourage that Cancun vacation is to go with Travelocity. They probably will be the most flexible option since the credit can be used for many of the travel options offered by this major website. You might find other sources as well, but by going with one of the major online travel companies you can give a slightly exotic present. If you purchase the right gift card, it can be a gift that creates lifelong vacation memories for a loved one.