Travel agency

Travel agencies can also serve as general sales agents for airlines that do not have offices in a specific region.

Travel agencies often receive commissions and other benefits and incentives from providers or may charge a fee to the end users.

[3] A 2016 survey of 1,193 travel agents in the United States found that on average 78% of their revenue was from commissions and 22% was generated from fees.

[6][7][8] Travel agencies use the services of the major computer reservations systems, also known as global distribution systems (GDS), including: Amadeus CRS, Galileo GDS, Sabre, and Worldspan, which is a subsidiary of Travelport, which allow for comparison and sorting of hotel and flight rates with multiple companies.

[26] In many countries, all travel agencies are required to be licensed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

In 1841, Thomas Cook, a Baptist preacher who believed that alcohol was to blame for social problems, reached an agreement with the Midland Railway to organize the transportation of 500 members of his temperance movement from the Leicester Campbell Street railway station to a rally in Loughborough in exchange for a commission.

News spreads and the former printers slowly build a strong side-line in travel at the back of the Baldwins Stationery shop at 27 Grosvenor Road.

[39] Originally, travel agencies largely catered to middle and upper-class customers but they became more commonplace with the development of commercial aviation.

However, the Post–World War II economic expansion in mass-market package tours resulted in the proliferation of travel agencies catering to the working class.

[41] In 1929, Intourist was formed as the official state travel agency of the Soviet Union, with the goal of convincing outsiders to visit the country.

[45][46] In the early 1980s, American Airlines' Sabre unit created a direct-to-consumer booking tool[clarification needed] for flights, hotels and cars called eAAsySabre.

[47] With the advent of the internet, travel agencies migrated online and underwent disintermediation by the reduction in costs caused by removing layers from the package holiday distribution network.

[50] In October 1996, Expedia.com, funded with hundreds of millions of dollars by Microsoft launched as the first large online travel agency.

[53][54] In 2007, the launch of the iPhone and related mobile apps increased travel bookings made online.

According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, there were 66,300 people who were employed as travel agents for their full-time jobs.