Rock With Nova Scotia in 2010

ITravel 2000 is a Canadian entry in the discount travel market and one that has seen tremendous growth since its inception. It’s president, Jonathan Carroll voices his own commercials and they sound like he’s out of breath half the time. But he is unique and he put the travel agency on the map – or the net – with his innovative “Let It Snow” Campaign. In fact, last October, when high fuel prices had almost locked down the travel industry iTravel 2000’s snowy campaign drove a 75% increase in revenues.

Here’s how it works: Travelers who book a qualifying vacation with itravel2000 by November 2nd can get a free trip if it snows more than 5 inches on New Year’s Day at their respective weather station. Just last year Quebecers got a freebee when it snowed 8.1 inches in Montreal squeaking past Ontario residents by a few centimetres.  To qualify these people had to book vacations departing between November 1 and April 30th. This year it was Halifax’s turn and travelers will be receiving cheques for their fare refunds this week. This includes everything except the taxes.

But will it continue? Carroll responded to the question with a hearty nod. “We wanted to finish big and we got really aggressive. Consumers responded and sales were phenomenal”, said Carroll. “Given the dire headlines, it wasn’t surprising that our travel suppliers didn’t want Let it Snow to end, so we all quickly agreed to extend it until November 2″.

The Let it Snow program is a first for the industry and it took Carroll three years to put the package together. It is underwritten by WeatherBill, the world’s only online weather risk management service. Their customers are businesses who want to protect revenues from the effects of bad weather.

“We have taken out the largest single-day weather coverage in history,” Carroll says. ” WeatherBill’s significant risk capacity and simple, automated service for managing weather risk and promotions make them the perfect partner given the large scale of the Let it Snow’ program.” adds Carroll.

He went on to say that he and his company are behind the people praying for bad weather. “So we will be hoping for snow like everyone else – it would be fun to write cheques to our customers for free flights.” And there are some very happy people in Halifax that will be getting them.

Jonathan Carroll is also an outspoken advocate for fairness in the travel industry. On Friday, August 8, 2008 he released a petition signed with 22,364 names from people across the country to the Minister of Transport, – the Honourable Mr. Cannon – and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Transportation – the Honourable Mr. Tweed – asking people from across Canada to help lobby for airlines to advertise all-in pricing so consumers know the total price of a return flight. This was in response to complaints that people were getting surcharges added after the tickets were booked with travel agencies.

itravel2000 is Canada’s largest online travel retailer.  Over three million Canadian users a month visit its site to research and book travel.  For more information about itravel2000 go to www.itravel2000.com