ASTA today released the results of a study that described a $12.3 billion U.S. packaged tour market in 2008; it revealed details of the tour operator-travel agent relationship and provided trend lines for the recent past and near future.
ASTA said it would use the study's findings as the basis of an educational course designed for its tour operator members.
According to the research, commissioned by ASTA and undertaken by PhoCusWright, travel agents booked $8.4 billion of packaged tour sales in 2008, or 69% of the total, with the remainder booked directly by consumers.
While about two-thirds of operators (62%) said they expected to see future growth in their business from direct bookings on the Web, a third (34%) also said they expected to see growth in their travel agency sales. Twenty-nine percent said they expected growth in consumer-direct bookings by phone, and 20% predicted growth through other channels, as well.
As for total sales in the near term, however, business is dropping by a projected 17%, to $10.2 billion, for 2009, said Douglas Quinby, PhoCusWright's senior director of research. But 2009 is expected to see the bottom of this downturn as operators projected a 2% increase, to $10.4 billion, for 2010, he said.
Researchers found that tour operators that emphasized consumer-direct sales were the smaller operators (less than $10 million a year), were more focused on group travel and were heavily invested in the senior and student markets. Conversely, "agent-centric" tour operators were larger (more than $10 million), sold more packaged and FIT tours and served clientele more evenly distributed across the age groups.
Seniors were 58% of sales for the consumer-direct operators, as opposed to 36% for agent-centric operators. For the latter group, boomers were 40% of the total, with the remaining 24% made up of among younger groups.
In addition, Quinby said, the survey revealed that 3% of the tour operators account for 51% of the market, while at the opposite extreme, 74% have 9% of the sales.
The numbers are larger when online packagers are accounted for: a total of another $6 billion or so in tour sales for 2008, for a grand total of more than $18.2 billion.
The five-year trend from 2006 to 2010 shows online packagers gaining share, from 27% of the grand total to 37%, and travel agents losing share, from 52% to 42%. Quinby said the online packagers have taken business from traditional operators, but "they have created a new market for packages," as well.
The results of the study, called "U.S. Packaged Travel Landscape 2006-2010," were based on research conducted among the members of the ASTA Tour Operator Program, the National Tour Association and the U.S. Tour Operator Association. Among the 700 members, 176 responded in the survey. It was augmented by U.S. Census Bureau data.
The study will be the focus of ASTA's newest webinar, offered exclusively to its TOP members, called "ASTA & PhoCusWright's U.S. Packaged Travel Landscape 2006-2010: Critical Insights on the Distribution of Tours, Packages and Groups," set for June 18 at 2 p.m. EDT. Quinby will conduct the session.