Last week the three luxury hotels of the Barriere group were unusually filled, packed with some 800 hoteliers, executives of destination management companies (DMCs) and high-end travel agents. This gathering of travel agents was for the annual conference of Traveller Made, a Paris-headquartered group of “travel designers” made up of 270 agencies with 949 designers spanning 55 countries. In total, the various agencies and their travel designers, who operate independently, generate just under $2 billion in annual sales. Virtuoso, another U.S.-based group, estimates its member agencies sell $14 billion per year in travel. Conventional wisdom was that booking travel could mainly be handled online, and giant online travel agencies, or OTAs in trade lingo, annually spend over $3 billion in marketing and advertising trying to persuade consumers to plan their own trips.

Source: Forbes March 04, 2017 12:38 UTC