The USTOA Annual Conference & Marketplace took place earlier this month, and during a press conference held on December 11, 2024, the organization revealed insights from the 2024 Economic Impact Study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). The online survey was taken by 48 corporate members, which is a 96% participation rate.
“By the close of 2024, USTOA tour operator members are projecting a more than 8% increase in sales from 2023, with a promising outlook for the year ahead,” said Terry Dale, president & CEO of USTOA. “As we approach 2025, the mood is undeniably optimistic with three fourths (73%) of our tour operators anticipating optimistic to significant sales growth of 7% to 10% or more next year.”
When looking at key statistics from 2023 to 2024, all six metrics increased year over year. This includes economic impact of travel packages sold, total employment within the U.S., individual travelers, purchases of goods & services for travel packages, packages sold and packages sold through travel agencies.
“An encouraging stat to know here is that 60.3% of travel packages sold through travel agencies, which remains steady and consistent with each survey, and this reinforces that our travel advisors are a vital partner to our businesses,” said Dana Santucci, executive vice president of EF Education First and USTOA chairman.
Almost half of USTOA Active Members anticipate seeing significant growth in sales volume for 2025, and 96% of members are predicting at least some growth. While escorted/guided tours are the biggest contributor to revenues, FIT and custom packages continue to grow. “We’re seeing consumers seeking customization and personalization, and this is a growing trend within the industry,” Santucci said.
Each year, new points of concern arise in the travel industry, and this year Active Members’ top concerns are geopolitical conflicts, political instability and overcrowding. Inflation, global financial instability and terrorism were also listed.
As far as popular destinations go, Europe remains in demand. “Europe continues to dominate our popular destination lists,” Dale said. “In fact, Europe accounts for half (52%) of the Active Member travel packages sold in both 2023 and 2024.”
Italy holds the number one spot on the “hot destinations” list, followed by Portugal and Greece. France and Japan tied for fourth, followed by Spain, Iceland, Croatia and South Africa. Australia, Morocco and Thailand all came in at a tie.
Vietnam took the top spot for the “off-the-beaten path” category, followed by Iceland and Japan (tied at second). Interestingly, Japan was at the top of both the “hot destination” and “off-the-beaten path” lists.
USTOA continues to make strides towards greater sustainability and diversity in the travel industry, and this survey shows an increased commitment towards these pillars of focus. According to the study, the majority of Active Members have a formal or informal sustainability strategy. Only 8% have no formal strategy, down from 14% in 2022. Also, members have made further progress toward formalizing policies covering gender, race and ethnicity, with 83% adopting these types of policies, which is up from 75% two years ago.
“It has long been our practice to bolster our advocacy efforts by commissioning PwC to quantify our industry's vital economic contributions. More recently, we've been passionate about measuring our progress in the areas of not only stainability but diversity, equity and inclusion,” Dale said. “These are the true barometers of the health of our industry, and by examining where our members are in their efforts, we're better able to guide them toward policies and practices that ensure widespread, long-term access to travel employment and experiences.”
For more information, visit www.ustoa.com.
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