Travel Agency Groups Still Up Year Over Year Despite Fluctuations

After nearly four years of steep growth in travel demand, bookings, and prices, the sudden economic slowdown in late March and most of April could have been a harbinger of the travel industry’s first down year since the pandemic. Instead, while the brief interruption of bookings did result in a flattening of the growth curve, it also led to a surge in last-minute trip planning, which is helping keep 2025 ahead of 2024 for travel agency consortia, hosts, and franchises.

“Growth has been steady,” Michael Johnson, president of Ensemble, told TMR, a sentiment we heard from every executive we spoke with.

And while there continue to be fluctuations – Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel Group referred to the ups and downs as “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” – agency groups are pacing ahead of this time last year.

“We are seeing growth across the board,” said Debbie Fiorino, chief operating officer, Dream Vacations. “Bookings and sales are both up compared to the same time in 2024, for both land and cruise.”

“We’re very bullish about the market,” added Kathryn Mazza-Burney, chief sales officer of TRAVELSAVERS and president of NEST. “We are double digits [ahead], right on target where we hoped to be.”

Alex Sharpe, president and CEO of Signature Travel told TMR much the same, as did Michelle Fee, founder and CEO of Cruise Planners.

Signature is up 10%-plus on a same-store basis, Sharpe said, while Fee told TMR that new bookings are up by 8% and departures for 2025 are up by 14%.

“We are pacing to set another sales record for Cruise Planners for 2025,” she said.

“We’re definitely ahead of 2024,” agreed Christina Pedroni, executive vice president and general manager, USA for Envoyage, adding some of their double-digit sales growth is reflective of their membership growth as well.

Slightly Flattened Growth Curve

While everyone we spoke to said they are pacing ahead of last year, several pointed out the trajectory of growth has slowed down, which all agreed was unsurprising.

“That strong post-COVID pent-up demand and recovery of ’23 and ’24 was phenomenal. We’re not seeing that anymore,” Fiorino said. “I don’t think anyone is surprised… we knew that the pent-up [demand] wouldn’t stay the same as it had been. It had to level out a little bit.”

Lindsay Pearlman, president, Travel Leaders Network told TMR, “We had a record year last year and you kind of, at some point, expect that to flatten out. But we’re pacing ahead of where we were from last year.”

Considering that 2024 was the best year on record for these groups, nearly every executive we spoke with pointed out how pleased they are with this year’s progress.

“It’s especially encouraging because ’24 was our division’s best year to date,” Fiorino said.

“Any time you’re close to that line or over it, you have to be elated,” Sharpe told TMR, using Michael Jordan as the greatest of all time as an analogy. When you’re having a better year than your best year ever, that’s something to be happy about, he said.

Booking Pattern Shift

Prior to late March, bookings were rolling along in a manner that some executives said was as close to pre-pandemic normals as they’ve experienced since COVID-19.

“The first half of the year had felt closer to normal pre-COVID pace in terms of demand and bookings,” Fiorino said.

Avoya Travel’s chief sales officer Phil Capelli agreed.

“Coming off of everything that we’ve dealt with in this industry, this feels more normal than I’ve felt in a long time,” he said.

Then came the U.S. government’s announcement of tariffs. What followed for travel agency groups around the country “was a moment of acute uncertainty,” Johnson explained.

“We know it’s a direct correlation between how the market’s riding to what business looks like,” Capelli told TMR. “So that was a bit of a shock to the system.”

It didn’t last long, and travel bookings picked back up four to six weeks after the slowdown began.

“The good news is that U.S. travelers have become much more resilient,” Sharpe said. “Travel has taken on a far stronger position in terms of their needs. It’s moved from something that’s a ‘want to have’ to something that’s a ‘need to have.’”

Ensemble’s Johnson agreed.

“I’m surprised by how quickly we saw clients pivot… What that suggests to me is that the travel market is incredibly resilient and robust. It wasn’t so much a pause in demand, so much as it was a reflection on where can I travel.”

The short pause did upend some expectations for agency groups though. Where most agencies would be focusing primarily on selling 2026 and 2027 at this point in the year, that hasn’t ended up being the case.

“Everything we thought we knew about our bookings patterns, we’ve just thrown out the window,” Friedman said.

One of the side effects of the slowdown was a dearth of bookings for the late summer to winter timeframe, leaving many suppliers with gaps to fill in.

“We’re still seeing a steady flow of close-in bookings for the summer months,” Cruise Planners’ Fee said.

“Last minute travel has been great,” Pedroni added. “We’ve seen some real shrinkage of our booking window over the May and June period.”

“We’re going full court press for third and fourth quarter to try and help them [suppliers] out and see where we can increase our bookings,” Capelli said.  

One aspect of the last-minute booking trend that Friedman said surprised her was that it extends into more exotic destinations and travel styles that traditionally book farther out.

“It’s not surprising to see last-minute short cruises out of South Florida, especially within the drive market, but some of the stuff we’re seeing is relatively last-minute to Europe where in the past you wouldn’t think that. It’s like the playbook got thrown out of the window.”

Membership Growth

Growth in the first six months of 2025 wasn’t limited to sales and bookings. For some of the groups, membership growth has also been a big story.

Travel Leaders Network added about 144 accounts in the U.S. and 23 in Canada in the first half of the year.

“If you compare that to last year, we’re pacing ahead,” Pearlman told TMR. “We’re averaging roughly just more than one new partner a day.”

At Envoyage USA, membership numbers have grown by 42% year-over-year from this time last year.

(This is part one of TMR’s annual six-months-into-the-year-look at what keeps executives up at night, what one big change they’d make if they could, what trends are driving business, and more.)