Overview of the Travel and Tourism Industry

$564.87 billion. That’s how much people spent on travel purchases online last year.

The travel and tourism industry is one of the world’s largest and most enduring industries. Trends might come and go, but people will always need (and want) to travel for work and for pleasure. If you are interested in starting your own internet business, you can register here!

It is little wonder that across all the sectors, the travel and tourism industry contributes over $7 trillion to the global economy.

The sheer number of directions you can take in travel and tourism makes the niche particularly intriguing. There are so many products you can promote and so many ways you can segment the market.

The market can be segmented by:

• Continent

• Country

• Region

• City

• Type of tourist attraction (best place to surf, swim with sharks, bungee jump)

• Age group (students, retirees, families with children)

• Interests (golf, art)

• Budget (cheap, mid range, luxury)

• Events (bachelor/ bachelorette party, location wedding, business conference)

With the combination of products available to promote and different demographics of people to promote them to in various different locations, there are almost limitless options that you can combine to form a website with manageable competition.

The Travel and Tourism Industry by Numbers

Travel was one of the first verticals to fully embrace online commerce. The first consumer-focused travel website, Expedia, was launched way back in 1996.
Expedia, of course, is still alive and kicking today. It actually made $5.73 billion last year.

Here’s what the travel and tourism industry looks like by the numbers:

• In 2015, the total size of the travel and tourism industry was $7.17 trillion.

• $533.52 billion: total money spent on online travel sites in 2015.

• $39.3 billion: Total sales across all of Expedia’s properties in 2013.

• $1.8 billion: Average annual online advertising spend of Price line (mostly on Google Ads)

• 105 million: Total people engaged in the travel and tourism sector (3.6% of all employment)

• 104.6 million: total rooms booked by Priceline.com in Q1 2015.