Tourists get on the bus for last-minute bargains

— -- Looking for a last-minute deal?

A growing number of tour operators offer discounts to fill up soon-to-depart motorcoach or river-cruise tours, something that was rare in the industry a few years ago.

"This is one way we can add even more value to our travelers," says Cyril Lemaire of Cambridge, Mass.-based Go Ahead Tours, which premiered a program called Last Minute Specials in May.

Go Ahead Tours has been posting about half a dozen Last Minute Specials a month on its website, goaheadtours.com. They're usually for trips departing in the next 40 to 75 days, and the typical savings are $250 per person — about 10% to 12% off the company's regular prices.

Lemaire says it's a win-win for the company and customers, even the ones who booked earlier at a higher price, since, like other tour operators, the company will cancel trips that don't meet a minimum level of occupancy. "Sometimes a departure is approaching, and we need to get a couple spots reserved to keep it on schedule," Lemaire says. "This gives us another way to do that."

Nicole Sullivan of Collette Vacations, which also offers last-minute deals, says they give the company a way to fill spaces on trips that open up when customers cancel on short notice. "People's plans can change, (and) we may be left with available seats," she notes.

While last-minute discounting is relatively common in the cruise industry, where it's used to top off unfilled ships just before departure, as well as at airlines, it isn't a mainstay of the motorcoach tour business.

Offering deals to customers who book at the last minute can antagonize customers who book far in advance, only to find out they would have gotten a better price by waiting.

But Lemaire notes that there's still an advantage to booking months in advance, since it provides the widest choice of travel dates and itineraries. Only a handful of Go Ahead's hundreds of tours are discounted in any given month. The deals work only for people who are extremely flexible about where they'll be going and can travel on short notice.