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)
02
$1.1 trillion Transportation Security Administration (TSA) total budget authority for FY 2023 (includes both TSA and related components)
03
10.9% increase in international tourist arrivals worldwide in 2022 vs 2021 (UNWTO figure)
04
59% of travel agencies reported that leisure travel was their primary revenue driver in 2023 (survey-based share)
05
84% of consumers expect a consistent experience across channels (salesforce report)
06
12% of travel agents said they struggle most with supply and inventory availability (survey-based pain point)
07
33% of organizations used automation for threat detection (Gartner survey stat)
08
1.7% average annual growth in global hotel online booking share during 2020-2023 (trend measure for online bookings)
09
33% of travel agencies reported adding new payment methods (e.g., BNPL/wallets) in 2023 (technology change adoption share)
10
29% of travel agencies said they reduced cancellation/changes using improved policy display and messaging (operational process metric share)
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)
02
10.2% global CAGR projected for travel & tourism sector through 2033 (WTTC long-run outlook estimate)
03
1,000+ airlines and hotels in Amadeus content network (count)
04
$2.5 billion global GDS revenue in 2022 (industry estimate)
05
1.6% increase in number of travel agency establishments in the US in 2023 (BLS business dynamics)
06
$68.9 billion US domestic travel agency and tour operator revenues in 2022 (BEA travel receipts? estimate)
07
2.2 million US workers in travel agencies and tour operators NAICS 5615 in 2023 (BLS employment)
08
19% of US travel workers were self-employed in 2023 (BLS CPS or ACS statistic)
09
2.5% year-over-year growth in US travel services (NAICS 5615 and related sub-sectors) revenues in 2023 (industry growth measure)
10
$4.4 billion US travel agent ticket commission/fees and related revenues in 2022 (industry income component estimate)
11
$76.3 billion global travel management market size in 2023 (corporate travel management services market estimate)
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)
02
56% of travelers say they use mobile for travel planning (survey-based)
03
79% of US travelers used online channels (including agency websites) for booking in 2023 (survey metric)
04
14.6% of US airline passengers had TSA PreCheck in 2023 (TSA metric)
05
58% of travel agencies use a booking engine or integrated travel tech in 2022 (survey metric)
06
57% of travelers say price is the most important factor when booking travel online (survey-based factor weighting)
07
74% of US consumers use mobile to compare travel options before booking (survey-based mobile comparison behavior)
08
63% of business travelers use mobile apps to manage trip logistics (share of business travelers using apps)
09
48% of travel agents reported using social media to market travel services in 2023 (agent marketing channel usage share)
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)
02
$10.7 billion US travel agencies paid in commissions/fees to GDS and content providers in 2022 (industry accounting estimate)
03
1.45% global cross-border travel payment fee share (survey/benchmark)
04
0.6% of transactions are impacted by card-not-present fraud for travel merchants (industry fraud benchmark)
05
$1.0 billion cost of travel-related fraud to industry in 2023 (FBI/FTC or industry report figure)
06
$7.5 million estimated annual loss due to downtime for e-commerce travel platforms (industry estimate)
07
28% of breach incidents involved web applications (Verizon DBIR)
08
$1.5 million median annual payroll for a travel agency business in the US (BLS/OSHA dataset)
09
$2.6 billion annual revenue impact of travel customer service delays in the US (estimated impact from service quality report)
10
27% increase in marketing spend for travel brands between 2022 and 2023 (year-over-year spending change)
11
6% of travel-agency revenue lost to payment failures (declines/failed transactions rate estimate)
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)
02
1.8x faster issue resolution with AI-assisted customer service in travel agencies (benchmark)
03
27% of travel companies reported faster time-to-market after migrating to cloud systems (survey-based)
04
99.95% uptime target for booking systems used by major travel platforms (SLA standard)
05
18% reduction in call-center volume after deploying travel-agent chatbots (measured as call volume change)
06
15% decrease in no-show rates when reminders are sent via SMS/WhatsApp (operational outcome metric)
07
2.3% conversion uplift when travel landing pages are optimized for speed (conversion rate lift measure)
08
0.42% lower chargeback rates after implementing traveler identity verification (fraud/chargeback metric improvement)
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
This report is designed to be cited. We maintain stable URLs and versioned verification dates. Copy the format appropriate for your publication below.
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 · attribution is report-level
+11 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)