Leading travel companies worldwide 2019, by sales revenue

According to the ranking, Expedia Group was the travel company worldwide with the highest gross sales in 2019. In that year, sales of this American online travel agency amounted to roughly 107.9 billion U.S. dollars. Another American company, Booking Holdings, followed on the list, generating gross sales of 96.4 billion U.S. dollars.

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. As of 2019, the revenue of Amadeus worldwide reached about 6.25 billion U.S. dollars. In that year, more than half of the Amadeus' revenue came from the distribution systems 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), ranked third on the list, with gross sales of 34.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. 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 2019. TMCs are companies that manage travel programs, policies, and travel & expense (T&E) reporting for businesses.