The Power List 2016 questionnaire was sent earlier this year to roughly 70 companies that had appeared on the list in previous years, had been in the news because of growth via acquisitions or other reasons or had contacted Travel Weekly believing they qualified.
To qualify for the Power List, a company had to have a minimum of $100 million in sales in 2015.
For purposes of this survey, sales are defined as gross sales of travel products worldwide, whether to consumers or to corporate travelers; the company must be the merchant of record on the transaction from a supplier's perspective. At least 15% of the sales volume must have been generated in the U.S.
As has been the case, Travel Weekly requested that gross sales volume, the primary number for ranking, be certified by a company's owner, CEO or CFO. In a small number of cases, certification was made by an executive at the vice presidential level but with financial oversight.
In one case, BCD Travel, sales totals are based on publicly disclosed information because the company did not respond to the survey.
Several companies that may have qualified opted not to participate. They include Loyalty Travel and AdTrav; both appeared on the list in 2015 at No. 17 and No. 42, respectively.
While all cooperating listees did certify sales (or made them public), readers must keep in mind that even those numbers are difficult to verify because the great majority of travel sellers are privately held and thus are 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 questionnaire on which these rankings were based also included questions involving sales figures; ARC sales; travel-related subsidiaries; percentage of sales from business and leisure; and corporate structure. 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 accompanies each listed agency.
Companies were offered the option of having an executive interviewed by a Travel Weekly editor. A few are profiled in our Industry Focus articles to demonstrate the diversity of listed companies.
There may be companies that should be on the list but that escaped our attention. Representatives of such companies should email [email protected] so we can send them a questionnaire for next year's Power List.