The death of a travel salesman, charted

Skift Take

Some travel agents, especially boutique ones reinventing themselves as travel concierge services, will likely survive and possibly thrive in niches.

Despite PR to the contrary, the consumer travel agents and the agencies they're part of are fading away, and how.

Just look at the number of searches people are doing, worldwide, looking up travel agents and agencies. The data below is from Google Trends, using multiple search terms (first chart) and using the normalized category search (second chart) as Google defines it, from 2004 till present day. The country and even more granular data gives more regional insights, and trying to find a silver lining is hard.

Chart 1: Multiple search terms:

Chart 2: Category search

One caveat, though: you could argue that the kind of people who're still using travel agents are likely not searching for them online, so there's that.

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First read is on us.

The death of a travel salesman, charted

Skift Take

Up Next

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What Travel Brands Should Know About China's RedNote

First read is on us.
Subscribe to read more essential travel industry news.

First read is on us.

The death of a travel salesman, charted

Skift Take

Up Next

How Data Quality Issues Impact Global Hospitality Operations

British Airways Boosts Loyalty Messaging to 'Reassure' Customers

LA Wildfires: Climate Change, Extreme Weather, and the Impact on Hotels

Engine Shortage Forces Air New Zealand to Scrap Seoul Route, Again

What Travel Brands Should Know About China's RedNote

First read is on us.Subscribe to read more essential travel industry news.

First read is on us.
Subscribe to read more essential travel industry news.