The compilation of Power List 2015 began late last year with adjustments to the questionnaire to be sent to potential listees. Early this year, the questionnaire was sent to roughly 70 companies that:
- had appeared on the list in previous years;
- had been in the news because of acquisitions or had grown for other reasons; or
- had contacted Travel Weekly believing they qualified.
To qualify for the list, a company had to reach $100 million in sales in 2014. For purposes of this survey, sales are defined as gross sales of travel products worldwide, whether to consumers or corporate travelers. It may appear white-labeled under a licensing agreement, but the company must be the merchant of record from a supplier's perspective. At least 15% of the sales volume must have been generated in the U.S.
In an effort to keep up with continuing changes, questions were added, removed and tweaked to make them relevant.
As has been the case, Travel Weekly requested that gross sales volume, the primary number for ranking, be certified by a company's owner, chief executive officer or chief financial officer. In a small number of cases, certification was made by an executive at the vice president level who has financial oversight responsibilities.
In one case, BCD Travel, sales totals are based on publicly disclosed information because the company did not respond to the survey.
Two companies that probably qualified opted not to participate. They include: Colpitts World Travel and CheapCaribbean.com, which became a subsidiary of Apple Leisure Group in 2013; both appeared on the list last year.
While all cooperating listees did certify sales (or made them public), it must be kept in mind that even those numbers are difficult to verify because the great majority of travel sellers are privately held and under no obligation to disclose financial data.
Also, there is no commonly accepted standard for calculating sales volume, and there is no clearinghouse in the U.S. that tracks nonairline sales, as ARC does for airline sales.
Where possible, Travel Weekly sought to confirm accuracy in the figures by referring to other data and to articles published in the past year. We also reviewed responses for consistency and used whatever resources we had at our disposal to ensure accuracy.
The survey on which these rankings were based also included questions involving sales figures, ARC sales, travel-related subsidiaries, percentage of sales from business and leisure, corporate structure and other duties. There were several open-ended questions about recent and planned developments to which companies could reply in any way they felt appropriate.
Responses to the questionnaire determined the length of the profiles that accompany each listed agency. Companies were offered the option of having an executive interviewed by a Travel Weekly editor.
A few have been profiled in depth to demonstrate the diversity of listed companies.
There might be companies that should be on the list but that escaped our attention. Representatives of such companies should contact Harvey Chipkin at [email protected] so we can send them a questionnaire for next year's edition.