KAYAK’s Global Travel Games

Let the travel games begin!

Today, we are announcing KAYAK’s GLOBAL TRAVEL GAMES™ (see, we can trademark stuff too), a Herculean competition among our 40 international sites to find out how people globally are planning their travel to the Games in Rio.

KAYAK logs over a billion searches each year* so we looked within that data to dole out some extremely prestigious awards (okay, just bragging rights) to those nations that have earned elite status for how they’ve planned for Rio.

*After extensive testing, it was determined that no performance-enhancing substance was used in any country’s data.

Congratulations to all our winners. And if your country didn’t place in this year’s Games, then you have 4 years to do your part by training those search fingers for competition.

Were you inspired by our data to join your fellow countrymen in Rio? (We get it: the ease of searching hundreds of other travel sites at once can have that effect on people.) Here are some inside tips to better plan your trip:

• The best time to travel to Rio. When it comes to planning a trip to Rio for August (or planning travel around any important global event), the Rules of Air Travel go out the window. That’s why we combed through our data to highlight the top date combinations that have the lowest median airfares to Rio in August:

  1. August 16 to August 27: median airfare $786
  2. August 16 to August 25: median airfare $802
  3. August 9 to August 13: median airfare $809

• Organize your events. With so many things to do in Rio, how are you going to keep track? Luckily, because you’re a smart (and, dare we say, incredibly attractive) KAYAK user, you’re already familiar with KAYAK Trips. However, did you know that you can take your Trip beyond storing all your flight, hotel and rental car confirmations in one easy-to-access itinerary? By forwarding emails like restaurant or activity reservations to trips@kayak.com, or by manually entering event details, you can populate your itinerary with all the other fun things you’ll do in Rio. Add notes to each event if you want to remember bits of your trip (like a dish to try, the name of your tour guide or a particularly memorable moment).

• Set Price Alerts if you’re still on the fence. Still not sure if Rio is right for you? Set a Price Alert and we’ll notify you when airfare to Rio goes up or down.

• Get a break from all the competition. If you can’t possibly sit through one more round, see what else Rio has to offer via a Guide on KAYAK. Get your fill of culinary treasures with a food tour of Rio or experience natural wonders with a Jeep ride through the rain forest. Check out more Activities on KAYAK and start making the most of your visit to the Marvelous City.

Methodology: Prices may vary.  Unless otherwise indicated below, results for the categories in the infographic are based on click data for global searches to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil conducted on KAYAK between 05/01/2015 and 06/01/2016, for travel dates 08/04/2016 through 08/22/2016. For procrastination category, we adjusted search dates to 05/04/2016 through 06/01/2016. For preparation category, we adjusted search dates to 05/01/2015 through 02/04/2016. Booking tips for the Best Time to Travel to Rio based on searches to Rio conducted between 08/01/2015 through 06/09/2016 for travel beginning 07/29/2016-08/21/2016 and ending 08/05/2016-08/28/2016.