Airlines, hotel chains and travel agencies took advantage of November 24, the Black Friday, and the next days to offer great discounts. It is a long-standing tradition that has been imported from the United States to many European countries. It is usually celebrated on the last Friday of November, as a starting point for Christmas sales.
The renowned Black Friday has strongly affected the European tourism sector. Many try to take advantage of the special discount day as a marketing tool to increase the volume of sales for Christmas holidays. Some of the businesses even connect it with the next Monday, also known as Cyber Monday, which is also a day of great internet offers.
Discounts of Hotels
The main hotel chains have been among the first companies to launch Black Friday exclusive promotions, and even some, like Room Mate hotels have come to advance the promotions offer to the previous Friday.
Meliá Hotels International celebrates Black Friday this year by becoming the first worldwide chain to market hotel experiences through Amazon.es. They have put on sale accommodations with a significant discount both on Amazon.es, and through Prime Now, the expedited delivery service.
Vincci hotels also offered a 15% discount on the same day for all those who booked their accommodation through their website. In addition, on November 23, they had a special sale with a 15% discount only for registered users, or those who signed up that day.
For its part, Sercotel Hotels, which has 176 hotels in Spain, Andorra, Italy and Portugal, celebrated Black Friday until Monday, offering discounts of up to 50% in most of their establishments by offering a promotional code that can be redeemed on their website.
Cheaper Flying
The airlines have also joined this shopping party and some have even extended it for several days. Iberia Express, Air France-KLM, Ryanair or Easyjet have released their offers.
Iberia joined Black Friday with an original campaign in which it invited customers to enjoy a Black Friday celebration that was not as technological as always, but in which you could enjoy the traveling experience. You could get domestic flights from 25 euros per trip, to Europe from 29 euros or to America from 225 euros per trip. In addition, the airline also offered the possibility of booking flights with hotel nights at reduced prices.
For its part, Iberia Express, a low cost subsidiary of Iberia, offered historical maximum discounts of up to 50% on their flight tickets, beginning from just 20 euros per trip to Europe, or 17 euros around the Iberian Peninsula.
Whereas Air France-KLM offered 40 destinations, from November 24 to 27, with up to 40% discount to travel throughout the entire airline network. That’s how they joined Black Friday for the seventh consecutive year.
Other companies, such as the Irish Ryanair, are celebrating a full Cyberweek this year. Last week they began a massive Christmas promotion, with discounts of up to 15% on 500,000 seats to travel in December.
Also, Easyjet has put on sale 70,000 seats with prices between 15 and 25 euros to travel through Europe, and seats are available to fly between November 28, 2017 and September 2, 2018.
LATAM Airlines have also decided to join Black Friday with flight discounts to Ecuador, Chile, Peru and other destinations. The promotion was valid from November 24 to November 27, 2017 on the company's website.
E-booking Platforms Offers
One of the first platforms that joined the Black Friday shopping frenzy was eDreams, which offered discounts on flights and flight packages plus hotels, valid to travel with more than 450 airlines and 40,000 destinations around the world for 24 hours, on Friday and Monday.
As for the large networks, Viajes El Corte Ingles, just like the department stores of their parent company, also offered discounts last Friday. They indicated on their website that the reductions would affect flights, as well as in national and international accommodations, cruises and trips to the Caribbean.
Viajes Carrefour also had a special campaign for the entire weekend. Thus, the travel chain designed a list of discounts of up to 150 euros for tours to be booked and offered exclusive promotions in Spanish, European and Caribbean hotels, cruises and circuits.
Destinia also released their exclusive offers campaign and offered promotions and discounts this year of up to 10%. In addition, the campaign began on Friday, November 24 and lasated till Monday, November 27th.
Restaurants and Leisure
The offers in the Restaurants and Leisure area are also very broad. The entradas.com ticket purchase platform offered discounts of up to 50% in theaters, concert halls and other cultural spaces. For four days, tickets could be purchased at reduced prices, regardless of the day of the event.
For its part, ElTenedor restaurant app offered discounts of up to 50% during Black Friday and also, from November 25 to 26, and by making reservations through its app, users could get double loyalty points, by using the code BlackFriday17.