With travel affiliate programs, you can make money online by writing about your favorite topic. There’s certainly a lot of money to be made in the travel niche.
In 2019 alone, spending on leisure tourism passed $4.6 trillion, with 1.5 billion international tourist arrivals recorded in that year. According to our affiliate marketing statistics, the average travel website earns nearly $14,000 per month
Granted, the travel industry has taken a beating at the hands of the coronavirus. But you can bet it’ll bounce back. Our desire to travel hasn’t gone away — it’s just taken a short hiatus.
Because building a travel blog or website from scratch takes time, it makes sense to get started now so you’re ready to make money when things are back to normal.
Take the first step by reading our round-up of the 18 best travel affiliate programs you can sign up for right now. Ready to join thousands of other travel bloggers and earn some serious passive income promoting your favorite travel sites? Let’s look at the top affiliate programs in the travel industry.
Travel Affiliate Programs
- Expedia affiliate program
- Booking.com affiliate program
- Agoda affiliate program
- Tripadvisor affiliate program
- Hotels.com affiliate program
- G Adventures affiliate program
- Travelpayouts affiliate program
- Kayak affiliate program
- Viator affiliate program
- World Nomads affiliate program
- GetYourGuide affiliate program
- REI affiliate program
- Take Walks affiliate program
- InsureMyTrip affiliate program
- TrustedHousesitters affiliate program
- Hostelworld affiliate program
- Safety Wings affiliate program
- Amazon Associates
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1 Expedia
Expedia is one of the world’s biggest travel brands, offering access to over 140,000 properties worldwide, plus discounted flights, vacation packages, cruises, and car rentals.
Its network of more than 500 travel partnerships with accommodation and airline suppliers allows travelers to save up to $500 on combined airline tickets and hotel bookings.
Through its loyalty program, users earn points to spend on future travel experiences, providing an additional incentive to book through Expedia.
The Expedia affiliate program pays different commissions based on the type of successful referral you drive, ranging from 2% on rental cars to 6% on cruise bookings.
While the seven-day cookie window is one of the worst among the affiliate programs on this list, the seven-day EPC of more than $83 shows there’s plenty of affiliate income to be made here.
- URL: Expedia affiliate program
- Commission: 2% – 6%
- Cookie duration: 7 days
2 Booking.com
Booking.com is an online platform covering travel services like hotel bookings, airline tickets, and car rentals.
It’s one of the most popular travel comparison sites, with almost 30 million bookable rooms in more than 2.5 million properties.
The strength of Booking.com’s partner relationships means users never have to pay booking fees, which often helps it undercut the competition.
Given the strength of its brand and the scale of its offering, it’s no surprise that Booking.com runs one of the most popular travel affiliate programs, with more than 12,500 travel affiliates signed up.
Whether travel bloggers, influencers, or anyone else, they earn 4% on all bookings. The seven-day EPC of $160+ makes this one of the highest paying affiliate programs in the travel niche.
Affiliates can also access an offers search box, banner integration options, and deep linking.
However, it’s not all good news because the cookie window is session-based — so you only earn money if someone clicks your referral link and converts right there.
So make absolutely sure to send warm, pre-qualified traffic only to Booking.com.
- URL: Booking.com affiliate program
- Commission: 4%
- Cookie duration: Session-based
3 Agoda
Agoda is one of the world’s largest online travel accommodation platforms, with a network of more than two million vacation rentals and hotel bookings.
Rather than specializing in a single area of the travel niche, it offers deals on business, leisure, solo, and family travelers, from the biggest resorts to the smallest hidden gems. That means more audiences for travel bloggers to target.
Agoda’s travel affiliate program focuses on travel bloggers because it’s only open to people with their own websites. In other words, there are no social influencers.
If you qualify, you can earn up to 7% commissions for each successful referral, more than the other big booking portals offer.
You can also access hotel power ads, text links, and other tools to increase affiliate marketing commissions.
- URL: Agoda affiliate program
- Commission: Up to 7%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
4 Tripadvisor
You probably know Tripadvisor is an online review platform. That’s its main purpose, and it does it better than anyone, with the site boasting approximately 884 million reviews as of 2020.
However, it’s also a portal that lets you book hotels and activities.
Accommodation is the sole focus of the Tripadvisor affiliate program. Affiliate marketers earn a 50% split of the money Tripadvisor earns from hotels, whereas it pays no commission on flights, restaurants, vacation rentals, or tourist attractions.
That 50% commission is already pretty generous but rises as high as 80% during incentive campaigns.
Another interesting vagary of this affiliate program is that no booking is required for you to earn a commission. Instead, you earn money every time a user sent from your site clicks out from Tripadvisor to any of its booking partners.
With conversion rates 30%+, the Tripadvisor program can be one of the highest paying affiliate programs in the travel niche (provided you can drive enough traffic).
- URL: Tripadvisor affiliate program
- Commission: 50%
- Cookie duration: Two weeks
5 Hotels.com
As its name suggests, Hotels.com is a major provider of hotel accommodations, with a portfolio spanning more than one million properties in 200 countries.
Whether you’re looking for a glitzy resort or a tiny bed-and-breakfast, you’ll likely find it here.
Hotels.com runs 85 localized websites in more than 35 languages, so unlike some referral programs, you can tap into a truly global audience.
However, it runs multiple affiliate programs through the Commission Junction affiliate network, each focusing on travelers in a specific market.
If you only sign up for the US & Canada affiliate program, you’ll only earn commission on bookings from customers in those locations.
To make life easier, Hotels.com allows affiliate marketers to promote exclusive voucher codes with competitive discounts.
- URL: Hotels.com affiliate program
- Commission: 4%
- Cookie duration: 7 days
6 G Adventures
G Adventures positions itself as the leader in small-group adventure travel.
Rather than booking fly-and-flop trips to all-inclusive resorts, its customers want to live like a local in the Amazon, tour North Asia by rail, or go mountain trekking in Nepal.
So it’s in a relatively niche market — albeit one that’s still projected to be worth $1.6 trillion by 2026. That makes this one of the best affiliate programs for adventure travel blogs.
Another upside of the adventure travel niche is the premium prices. These are often once-in-a-lifetime trips, so people aren’t necessarily looking for the cheapest option.
So, while the 6% commission rate doesn’t sound spectacular, it becomes much more attractive when you learn that G Adventures’ average order value is $2,600.
- URL: G Adventures affiliate program
- Commission: 6% per sale
- Cookie duration: 60 days
7 Travelpayouts
Whereas the other travel sites on this list are all brands running individual affiliate programs, Travelpayouts is a pay-per-action affiliate network offering multiple referral programs focusing on everything from flights and hotel bookings to car rental services and insurance.
Travelpayouts offers access to more than 90 travel affiliate programs from brands like Vrbo, Tripadvisor, and Hilton Honors, some of which are exclusive to the affiliate network.
Since 2011, it’s paid over $28 million in commissions to approximately 300,000 affiliates.
The Travelpayouts affiliate network shares up to 70% of its earnings with referral partners.
Affiliate marketers can earn 1.1% – 1.15% of the total booking value on flights and 4% – 5% on hotels.
All of these factors make this one a bit of a no-brainer.
- URL: Travelpayouts affiliate network
- Commission: Varies
- Cookie duration: Varies
👉 Read more: Travelpayouts review
8 Kayak
Talking of affiliate networks, let’s take a look at Kayak.
Because Kayak owns many brands — including HotelsCombined, Momondo, and Kayak — it effectively runs its own travel affiliate network.
Combined, those brands generate over six billion travel searches yearly, work with over two million properties, and pay out over $76 million in annual affiliate earnings.
Getting access to multiple travel affiliate programs through a single signup sounds like a pretty good deal. And it gets even better when you consider Kayak’s 50% commission rate.
The only real downside is the payment threshold—you won’t see any of your commissions until your earnings reach $500.
- URL: Kayak affiliate program
- Commission: 50%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
9 Viator
For many of us, travel is all about the experience. And Viator is basically a one-stop-shop for those experiences, with more than 395,000 attractions and things to do in 2,500 destinations.
Viator goes out of its way to smooth the path to conversion. It supports over 35 languages, has a catalog of more than one million reviews to help customers make the right booking, and offers cancellations up to 24 hours in advance on 85% of its affiliate products.
That makes it a lot easier for affiliate marketers to monetize the traffic they refer.
Travel bloggers and other content partners earn an 8% commission on each booking, and the 30-day cookie is more generous than many of the referral programs on this list.
- URL: Viator affiliate program
- Commission: 8%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
10 World Nomads
World Nomads is the first travel insurance provider on this list.
As its name suggests, World Nomads focuses on what it calls the “intrepid” travel market, with its various travel insurance policies offering coverage for more than 200 activities and protecting against things like trip cancellation and medical emergencies.
It is recommended by many big-name travel brands, such as Lonely Planet, which is a major trust factor.
Another strong selling point is the company’s ethical credentials. More than 70% of its customers make a micro-donation when purchasing a travel insurance policy.
Over the years, World Nomads has used this approach to raise more than $3 million, which has helped support over 100 projects worldwide.
As if that wasn’t enough reason for affiliate marketers to promote World Nomads, the brand’s affiliate program offers commissions of $0.83 per qualified sale with a generous 60-day cookie window.
- URL: World Nomads affiliate program
- Commission: $0.83
- Cookie duration: 60 days
11 GetYourGuide
Local knowledge can often make a big difference to your holiday experience.
That’s where GetYourGuide — a Berlin-based online travel agency and marketplace for tour guides and excursions — comes in. The site boasts a catalog of more than 34,000 tours and activities across the world, including big hitters like the Sistine Chapel and the Louvre Museum.
Affiliate marketers earn 8% commissions through the GetYourGuide travel affiliate program, with an opportunity for higher rates on a per-partner basis.
To help drive affiliate sales, the brand runs regular promotions, offers a lower price guarantee, and allows last-minute bookings.
Sign up for the Awin affiliate network.
- URL: GetYourGuide affiliate program
- Commission: 8%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
12 REI
Amazon might be the go-to destination for general last-minute travel purchases, but REI is the place for specialist outdoor gear.
It’s been a fixture of the outdoor industry for over eight decades and operates 165 retail stores across the US, which means its brand is super strong.
If you need a new backpack, hiking boots, or trekking pole, REI has what you need.
This isn’t a conventional travel affiliate program, but there are still many monetization opportunities for travel blogs.
While a 5% commission doesn’t sound like much, the site’s average order value of more than $120 makes it much better.
What’s more, it offers free pickups from REI stores and free shipping on orders of $50+, offering plenty of incentives for readers to click your text links.
- URL: REI affiliate program
- Commission: 5% per sale
- Cookie duration: 15 days
13 Take Walks
Take Walks is a tour booking service that works with up to 600 guides in 13 of the world’s most vibrant cities—from Paris and Rome to New Orleans and New York. More than one million travelers have booked its guided tours.
Prices aren’t especially cheap — for instance, its Paris tours range from $44 – $252. But they exclusively cater to small groups and often include special access to major attractions, sometimes with skip-the-line access.
Those premium prices make this affiliate program look more attractive. Which travel blogger wouldn’t want to earn a 15% commission on a $250 booking?
- URL: Take Walks affiliate program
- Commission: 15% per sale
- Cookie duration: 45 days
14 InsureMyTrip
As you can probably guess, InsureMyTrip is another travel insurance site.
Unlike World Nomads, InsureMyTrip is a comparison site that works with multiple travel insurance providers, including AIG, AXA, and IMG.
To help international travelers make the right choice on their travel insurance purchases, it offers more than 100,000 ratings and reviews from previous customers.
The InsureMyTrips affiliate program offers a choice of affiliate models — referral-based and commission-based.
Terms appear to be decided per case, so you must sign up via a simple online form and check with their affiliate manager to see how much you can earn.
- URL: InsureMyTrip affiliate program
- Commission: Undisclosed
- Cookie duration: Undisclosed
15 TrustedHousesitters
No one likes to leave their furry friend behind when going on holiday.
Fortunately, TrustHousesitters offers a solution — choose a sitter to move into your house and look after your pets while you’re away.
The site has property owners in 130 countries, from London townhouses to Hawaiian beachfront homes.
Users pay a membership fee, starting at $129 a year, that enables them to either:
- Bid for the right to become live-in pet sitters and stay in the owner’s house for free
- Access unlimited pet and home care from verified sitters
Either way, that’s a great deal!
As such, TrustedHousesitters effectively runs two separate travel affiliate programs. Like how Airbnb used to run a host affiliate program and a guest affiliate program, affiliate marketers can earn up to 40% commission for referring sitters, owners, or combined to TrustedHousesitters.
- URL: TrustedHousesitters affiliate program
- Commission: Up to 40%
- Cookie duration: 30 days
16 Hostelworld
Hostelworld is another big travel booking platform. But whereas Booking.com and Expedia are generalists, Hostelworld focuses specifically on the hostel experience, offering more than 36,000 hostels in 179 countries.
To help travelers make the right choice, its listings are backed up by over 13 million verified guest reviews.
Hostelworld runs one of the most popular affiliate programs in this profitable niche, with members including Culture Trip, Lonely Planet, and Tripadvisor, plus high-profile travel bloggers like The Broke Backpacker.
That’s always a sign that a referral program is worth joining.
Commissions are earned on a CPA basis, calculated as up to 40% of the deposit earned by Hostelworld for each booking.
- URL: Hostelworld affiliate program
- Commission: Up to 40% of the deposit
- Cookie duration: 30 days
17 SafetyWing
SafetyWing sells travel insurance catered to two specific audiences:
- Digital nomads
- Remote teams and entrepreneurs
Those are two markets that aren’t served by many mainstream insurance providers, so there’s plenty of incentive for a qualified reader to click an affiliate link and buy a policy.
Whichever policy you promote, the SafetyWing affiliate program offers a 10% commission rate and an extremely generous 365-day cookie window — the longest referral program on this list.
As another sweetener, SafetyWing pays out once a month through PayPal when you reach a minimum earning threshold of just $10.
- URL: SafetyWing affiliate program
- Commission: 10% per sale
- Cookie duration: 365 days
18 Amazon Associates
Travel isn’t just about booking flights and hotels. You need to buy countless other things ahead of a big trip, from luggage and travel adaptors to clothes and sunglasses.
And where do you buy all that stuff from in a hurry? Amazon.
As affiliate marketers in any niche will tell you, the terms of the Amazon Associates program aren’t exactly the most generous.
Commissions vary from category to category — for instance, you can earn 4% on clothing sales but just 3% on sports gear and a measly 1% on health and personal care products.
Moreover, the cookie window runs for a mere 24 hours, so if your referrals aren’t highly qualified, you won’t earn a penny through the Amazon affiliate program.
On the flip side, Amazon has a huge brand and is widely trusted, so it’s not a tough sell to persuade people to buy.
Plus, you get a cut of any sales made by your referrals during the 24-hour window, so you might earn an unexpected bonus commission.
- URL: Amazon affiliate program
- Commission: 4% on Apparel
- Cookie duration: 24 hours
👉 Check out our step-by-step guide on How to Become an Amazon Affiliate.
✈️ Conclusion
As you can see, there’s no shortage of quality travel affiliate programs with high potential to generate income.
And that’s without even mentioning three huge travel sites — Airbnb, Hotels Combined, and Skyscanner — that had paused their affiliate programs at the time of writing.
But don’t think you can simply start a travel blog and immediately earn passive income.
For starters, you’ll need to build your travel website, carry out keyword research, and write high-quality content to compete with all the travel bloggers already doing it.
(Explore our curated selection of 15 travel blog examples for a dose of inspiration for your own website.)
And that’s before you’ve thought about the right affiliate programs for your target audience.
It’s hard work. But it’s not impossible. Many travel affiliate marketers have made it work, and so can you – especially with us in your corner!
Sign up for our free training to learn the five simple steps needed to build a high-earning travel blog in 2024.
