Travel Industry Survey 2023

About the Travel Industry Survey

For the 2023 Travel Industry Survey, Travel Weekly teamed up again with its sister brand, the travel research company Phocuswright, to examine trends among travel agencies and advisors in the U.S. The information presented in this report was obtained by distributing an online questionnaire to Travel Weekly and TravelAge West subscribers as well as members of various consortia and host agencies, inviting them to participate in the research project. 

The survey results were based on responses received by Phocuswright from 1,328 travel advisors who completed the questionnaire from Aug. 2 to 16. The report only utilized responses from those who are currently employed by a travel agency, are independent contractors for a travel agency or are travel agency owners or managers.

These responses were analyzed to understand the current state of the travel agency landscape and examine industry trends. Since the sample is not representative of all travel agencies in the U.S., the data is not statistically weighted.

We compare different groups of travel advisors in this report, and they are defined as:

• Traditional travel agents: travel agency office/retail storefront and home-based retail travel agency employees.
• Home-based independent agents: home-based, hosted independent contractors and home-based, fully independent agencies.

Demographics

The majority of advisors surveyed this year are based in the South (41%), followed by the West (22%), Midwest (18%) and the Northeast (20%). The top states represented among respondents in this year’s study are Florida (13%), California (10%), Texas (8%) and New York (5%). 

The majority of respondents (80%) identify as female; 57% are older than 55, and 5% are 35 or younger.

When asked to describe their position, 55% of advisors identify as travel agency owners or managers. Among home-based independents, 58% say they are travel agency owners or managers. 

Two-thirds of advisors work for an agency that has been in business for more than a decade. More than one-third of advisors started selling travel in the past five years, and one in 10 advisors has been selling for less than one year.

Travel Weekly did not field the Travel Industry Survey in 2020. As a result, some of the charts do not have data about 2019 sales.

Contributors

In this report, Travel Weekly editors offer analysis to help explain and break down the data found in the 2023 Travel Industry Survey.