Leading travel companies worldwide 2021, by sales

In 2021, Booking Holdings was the travel company with the highest gross sales worldwide, generating roughly 76.6 billion U.S. dollars. Expedia Group followed behind, with around 72.4 billion U.S. dollars in gross sales. All the other travel companies listed in the ranking reported gross sales lower than 10 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

Travel agencies worldwide

Travel agencies facilitate the purchase of travel products between travel providers and customers. Since the advent of the internet, the industry has been divided into two main sectors. There are traditional travel agencies, which are brick and mortar stores where trained professionals deal with customers one to one, and online travel agencies (OTAs), which are e-commerce sites that bypass the need for a personal travel agent and search travel providers using global distribution systems such as Amadeus. In 2021, revenue of Amadeus worldwide totaled 2.94 billion U.S. dollars. That year, over a third of Amadeus' revenue came from the air distribution system's business segment. Although OTAs lack the assistance of a trained professional, they do allow customers to compare travel options themselves.

Travel management

American Express Global Business Travel, a travel management company (TMC), reported the third highest gross sales in 2021, totaling 7.1 billion U.S. dollars. Another two TMCs - BCD Travel and CWT - followed on the list. These were also the travel management companies recording the highest share of air ticket transactions in the United States in 2020. TMCs are companies that manage travel programs, policies, and travel & expense (T&E) reporting for businesses.