Stats: 46.5% of Agents Say Travel Spending to Rise in 2017

The vast majority of travel agents are expecting travel spending to hold steady or rise this year, according to Travel Leaders Group’s 2017 Travel Trends Survey

Based on 2017 bookings-to-date and conversations with clients, 94.5 percent of Travel Leaders Group agents say clients will spend the same or more on travel in 2017.

  2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Spending more per trip than previous year 46.5% 44.8% 53.2% 52.6% 53.1%
Spending the same per trip as previous year 48.0% 50.1% 43.3% 41.4% 39.1%
Spending less per trip than previous year 5.5% 5.1% 3.5% 6.0% 7.8%

For those Travel Leaders Group travel agents who said clients would spend less per trip, they were then asked whether that is due to the strong value of the U.S. dollar and being able to book the same level of travel at a reduced price. More than 59 percent of travel agents who participated said “Yes” lower spending is due to the strong value of the U.S. dollar. 

Based on booking data, Travel Leaders Group’s survey was conducted November 17-December 9, 2016, with responses from 1,689 U.S.-based travel agency owners, managers and frontline travel agents from the flagship Travel Leaders brand and Travel Leaders Group’s All Aboard Travel, Cruise Specialists, Nexion, Protravel International, Results! Travel, Travel Leaders Corporate, Tzell Travel Group and Vacation.com units.

Source: Travel Leaders Group