While last year was tumultuous on many fronts, it did not seem to have a dramatic impact on the companies that make up the Travel Weekly Power List, our annual ranking of travel companies with travel sales of $100 million or more.
Some companies may have felt the impact of outside forces, but many saw healthy increases. Not long ago, $11 billion would have been a significant annual sales total for a travel-selling company. In 2016, that number represented the increase in year-over-year sales by the biggest travel company on the Power List, Expedia Inc.
And No. 2 Priceline recorded an increase of more than $12 billion.
For the third straight year there were 21 listees with sales of more than $1 billion.
Some companies pointed to outside forces as causing declines. For instance, the Appointment Group, headquartered in the U.K., reported its global turnover was "adjusted by $25 million due to Brexit, which resulted in significant fluctuations in currency exchange rates over our two largest markets."
However, for the most part, Power List companies signaled optimism through their extensive investments in technology, expansion and people.
And to a certain extent, upheaval in global politics and market changes can have a positive impact on travel agencies: As travel gets more complicated, their expertise will be more valuable than ever.
Power growth
Both Expedia and Priceline grew without major acquisitions; other Power List entries did grow through acquisition. Corporate Travel Management completed the acquisition of two previous listees: Travizon Group and Montrose Travel. Direct Travel acquired Traveline, which has been on the list in the past.
Travel Leaders Group made a significant investment in CruCon, which is becoming part of Travel Leaders (although it's too early to determine how that might affect CruCon's future on the list). And smaller companies also grew through acquisition. For example, Christopherson Andavo Travel acquired three nonlisted agencies: Salt Lake Travel Service in Utah, Dynamic Travel in Colorado and CV Humanitarian Travel in Alabama.
Rovia and Small World Travel are new listees, while Quality Reward Travel returns after a two-year absence.
Power models
Some companies continue to do well by specializing. That includes a couple of agencies that are the subjects of separate profiles. Small World Vacations overwhelmingly sells one brand as its name suggests, that brand is Disney while Creative Lodging Solutions handles lodging for its clients.
Each year we ask potential Power List agencies to write down their most significant developments and what they expect for the current year and beyond. Among the trends are globalization, organically or through the opening of offices overseas, and a relentless investment in technology, especially data mining, analytics and mobile.
A positive sign for the industry is that a number of listees have expanded their educational and recruiting initiatives in an effort to ensure that younger people see travel selling as a promising career. For instance, theAppointment Group expanded its TAG Academy to the U.S.