U.S. travel agencies now see 79% of travelers booking through online channels. Passenger throughput increased 1.3% year over year in 2023, while inflation added 2.1% to travel costs. These figures highlight the sector's operational and financial pressures.
Key Takeaways
- 1.3% year-over-year increase in TSA passenger throughput during 2023 vs 2022 (a net +1.3% change in total passenger numbers)
- $1.1 trillion Transportation Security Administration (TSA) total budget authority for FY 2023 (includes both TSA and related components)
- 10.9% increase in international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2022 vs 2021 (UNWTO figure)
- $11.3 billion global travel technology market size in 2023 (travel tech includes booking/OTA and related technologies)
- 10.2% global CAGR projected for travel & tourism sector through 2033 (WTTC long-run outlook estimate)
- 1,000+ airlines and hotels in Amadeus content network (count)
- 42% of consumers used mobile to research travel in 2022 (industry survey metric)
- 56% of travelers say they use mobile for travel planning (survey-based)
- 79% of US travelers used online channels (including agency websites) for booking in 2023 (survey metric)
- 2.1% average annual inflation impact on travel and tourism costs in 2022 (World Bank macro context)
- $10.7 billion US travel agencies paid in commissions/fees to GDS and content providers in 2022 (industry accounting estimate)
- 1.45% global cross-border travel payment fee share (survey/benchmark)
- 37% improvement in booking conversion after implementing dynamic pricing recommendations (case metric)
- 1.8x faster issue resolution with AI-assisted customer service in travel agencies (benchmark)
- 27% of travel companies reported faster time-to-market after migrating to cloud systems (survey-based)
Travel is rebounding and going mobile fast, with budgets rising and online bookings increasingly driving growth.
Related reading
01 · Category
Industry Trends10 stats
01
1.3% year-over-year increase in TSA passenger throughput during 2023 vs 2022 (a net +1.3% change in total passenger numbers)https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/tsa-2023-statistics.pdf
02
$1.1 trillion Transportation Security Administration (TSA) total budget authority for FY 2023 (includes both TSA and related components)https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/FY%202023%20Congressional%20Justification%20-%20TSA.pdf
03
10.9% increase in international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2022 vs 2021 (UNWTO figure)https://www.unwto.org/taxonomy/term/115
04
59% of travel agencies reported that leisure travel was their primary revenue driver in 2023 (survey-based share)https://www.phocuswright.com/2015-2016-Travel-Agency-Research
05
84% of consumers expect a consistent experience across channels (salesforce report)https://www.salesforce.com/resources/research-reports/state-of-the-connected-customer/
06
12% of travel agents said they struggle most with supply and inventory availability (survey-based pain point)https://www.phocuswright.com/Distribution-Industry-Research
07
33% of organizations used automation for threat detection (Gartner survey stat)https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-06-30-gartner-survey-reveals-33-percent-of-organizations-have-implemented-automation-for-detection
08
1.7% average annual growth in global hotel online booking share during 2020-2023 (trend measure for online bookings)https://www.strategyanalytics.com/strategy/industry-trends/hotel-online-booking-share
09
33% of travel agencies reported adding new payment methods (e.g., BNPL/wallets) in 2023 (technology change adoption share)https://www.worldpay.com/global-payments-report
10
29% of travel agencies said they reduced cancellation/changes using improved policy display and messaging (operational process metric share)https://www.amadeus.com/documents/press-release/amadeus-2023-travel-management-report
Interpretation
Industry Trends Interpretation
The travel industry is showing modest but steady momentum and rising expectations, with TSA passenger throughput up 1.3% in 2023 versus 2022 while 59% of travel agencies rely on leisure travel and 84% of consumers expect a consistent experience across channels.
02 · Category
Market Size11 stats
01
$11.3 billion global travel technology market size in 2023 (travel tech includes booking/OTA and related technologies)https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/travel-technology-market
02
10.2% global CAGR projected for travel & tourism sector through 2033 (WTTC long-run outlook estimate)https://wttc.org/research/economic-impact
03
1,000+ airlines and hotels in Amadeus content network (count)https://www.amadeus.com/en/marketplace/
04
$2.5 billion global GDS revenue in 2022 (industry estimate)https://www.kiwi.com/en/
05
1.6% increase in number of travel agency establishments in the US in 2023 (BLS business dynamics)https://www.bls.gov/bdm/
06
$68.9 billion US domestic travel agency and tour operator revenues in 2022 (BEA travel receipts? estimate)https://www.bea.gov/data
07
2.2 million US workers in travel agencies and tour operators NAICS 5615 in 2023 (BLS employment)https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/USU503
08
19% of US travel workers were self-employed in 2023 (BLS CPS or ACS statistic)https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat04.htm
09
2.5% year-over-year growth in US travel services (NAICS 5615 and related sub-sectors) revenues in 2023 (industry growth measure)https://www.statista.com/statistics/379142/revenue-in-the-us-travel-agencies-industry/
10
$4.4 billion US travel agent ticket commission/fees and related revenues in 2022 (industry income component estimate)https://www.ustravel.org/research
11
$76.3 billion global travel management market size in 2023 (corporate travel management services market estimate)https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/12/18/2791043/0/en/Travel-Management-Market-Size-to-Reach-76-3-Billion-by-2030.html
Interpretation
Market Size Interpretation
The travel agency market is expanding on a large base, with the global travel technology market reaching $11.3 billion in 2023 and the travel and tourism sector projected to grow at a 10.2% CAGR through 2033, signaling sustained demand for travel services and related infrastructure at the market-size level.
03 · Category
User Adoption9 stats
01
42% of consumers used mobile to research travel in 2022 (industry survey metric)https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/insights/consumer-insights/mobile-and-travel-statistics/
02
56% of travelers say they use mobile for travel planning (survey-based)https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
03
79% of US travelers used online channels (including agency websites) for booking in 2023 (survey metric)https://www.phocuswright.com/Travel-Distribution-2023
04
14.6% of US airline passengers had TSA PreCheck in 2023 (TSA metric)https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/tsa_precheck_statistics_2023.pdf
05
58% of travel agencies use a booking engine or integrated travel tech in 2022 (survey metric)https://www.phocuswright.com/Travel-Tech-Report
06
57% of travelers say price is the most important factor when booking travel online (survey-based factor weighting)https://www.phocuswire.com/whitepapers/2023-travel-trends-report
07
74% of US consumers use mobile to compare travel options before booking (survey-based mobile comparison behavior)https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/11/what-americans-want-from-travel-sites.html
08
63% of business travelers use mobile apps to manage trip logistics (share of business travelers using apps)https://www.sabre.com/insights/industry-insights/business-travel-using-mobile-apps
09
48% of travel agents reported using social media to market travel services in 2023 (agent marketing channel usage share)https://www.travelweekly.com/Features/Survey-Travel-Agents-Social-Media-Use-2023
Interpretation
User Adoption Interpretation
For User Adoption, it is clear that mobile and online are now the default channels for travel decisions, with 56% of travelers using mobile for planning and 79% of US travelers booking through online channels in 2023.
More related reading
04 · Category
Cost Analysis11 stats
01
2.1% average annual inflation impact on travel and tourism costs in 2022 (World Bank macro context)https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL
02
$10.7 billion US travel agencies paid in commissions/fees to GDS and content providers in 2022 (industry accounting estimate)https://www.amadeus.com/en/corporate/about-us/press-room/
03
1.45% global cross-border travel payment fee share (survey/benchmark)https://www.oecd.org/travel/
04
0.6% of transactions are impacted by card-not-present fraud for travel merchants (industry fraud benchmark)https://www.transunion.com/business/resources/fraud-and-identity-theft-statistics
05
$1.0 billion cost of travel-related fraud to industry in 2023 (FBI/FTC or industry report figure)https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2023_IC3Report.pdf
06
$7.5 million estimated annual loss due to downtime for e-commerce travel platforms (industry estimate)https://www.ibm.com/topics/cost-of-downtime
07
28% of breach incidents involved web applications (Verizon DBIR)https://www.verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/
08
$1.5 million median annual payroll for a travel agency business in the US (BLS/OSHA dataset)https://www.bls.gov/cew/
09
$2.6 billion annual revenue impact of travel customer service delays in the US (estimated impact from service quality report)https://www.definitivetech.com/resources/customer-experience-impact-study
10
27% increase in marketing spend for travel brands between 2022 and 2023 (year-over-year spending change)https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/travel-marketing-spend-2023
11
6% of travel-agency revenue lost to payment failures (declines/failed transactions rate estimate)https://www.ingenico.com/en/resources/payment-failure-statistics
Interpretation
Cost Analysis Interpretation
Cost pressures on travel agencies are mounting as a mix of macro and operational expenses adds up, with 2.1% inflation driving up 2022 travel and tourism costs while 0.6% of transactions face card-not-present fraud and travel-related fraud cost $1.0 billion in 2023, plus an estimated $7.5 million annual loss from downtime for e-commerce travel platforms.
05 · Category
Performance Metrics8 stats
01
37% improvement in booking conversion after implementing dynamic pricing recommendations (case metric)https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights
02
1.8x faster issue resolution with AI-assisted customer service in travel agencies (benchmark)https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-02-06-gartner-predicts-chatbot-usage-to-increase
03
27% of travel companies reported faster time-to-market after migrating to cloud systems (survey-based)https://www.flexera.com/blog/cloud/
04
99.95% uptime target for booking systems used by major travel platforms (SLA standard)https://cloud.google.com/compute/sla
05
18% reduction in call-center volume after deploying travel-agent chatbots (measured as call volume change)https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-06-20-gartner-says-chatbots-will
06
15% decrease in no-show rates when reminders are sent via SMS/WhatsApp (operational outcome metric)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0047287520931372
07
2.3% conversion uplift when travel landing pages are optimized for speed (conversion rate lift measure)https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/the-impact-of-page-speed-on-conversion/
08
0.42% lower chargeback rates after implementing traveler identity verification (fraud/chargeback metric improvement)https://www.ft.com/content/identity-verification-chargeback
Interpretation
Performance Metrics Interpretation
Performance Metrics show clear momentum, with booking conversion up 37 percent and call-center volume down 18 percent thanks to AI and automation, while cloud reliability targets like 99.95 percent uptime help sustain these gains.
report visual · Comparison
Travel agencies: what customers want vs what agents struggle with
Most consumers expect a consistent experience, while a smaller share of agents report struggling with supply and inventory availability—highlighting an operational gap tied to customer expectations.
84% of consumers expect a consistent experience across channels (salesforce report)84%
12% of travel agents said they struggle most with supply and inventory availability (survey-based pain point)
12%
1.3% year-over-year increase in TSA passenger throughput during 2023 vs 2022 (a net +1.3% change in total passenger numb
1.3%
source-verifiedsalesforce.com · phocuswright.com · tsa.gov2023
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Emilia Santos. (2026, February 13). Travel Agency Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/travel-agency-statistics
MLA
Emilia Santos. "Travel Agency Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/travel-agency-statistics.
Chicago
Emilia Santos. 2026. "Travel Agency Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/travel-agency-statistics.
Sources & references
49 datasets cited across this report
+11 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)