The “Golden Age of travel advisors is alive and well,” said John Lovell, president of Travel Leaders Network (TLN), at a trade media event in New York City on Tuesday. His statement was backed up by TLN’s strong 2024 numbers: total sales for the travel agency network were up 17 percent year-over-year compared to 2023.
Diving into those numbers, Travel Leaders Network reported a 9.7 percent increase in land sales from 2023 to 2024 and an impressive 25.1 percent increase in cruise sales. In all cruise segments as well as FIT and touring sales were up from 2023. Only “fun and sun” bookings were down when compared to 2023. Those numbers become even more impressive when you consider “last year was the best year on record for us,” according to Lovell.
The TLN president is especially proud of the cruise numbers. “If you look at the four major cruise lines that are all publicly traded … in 24 they finished up about 15.6 percent in revenue. And when you look at our number at 25.1 percent, it tells me two things: A, we outproduced them by about 60 percent—I think it's more like 66 percent … [and B,] the consumer itself is coming back in droves to the distribution channel.”
Lovell added: “The proof is right here that the consumer is using the distribution channel in a higher percentage than they've ever used in the past for us to outproduce the cruise category, when you look at the major four companies—which represent, I think, 13 of our 18 partners that are represented in the cruise category—and to outperform their revenue performance, which was extremely strong in ‘24 by over 60 percent, it just talks about that transition from the consumer going other places, but now they're coming for the services of a travel advisor.”
Looking at the start to 2025, river and luxury cruises (up 33 percent and 26 percent year-to-date versus the same time last year, respectively) are leading the way. Still performing well are premium (+16 percent year-over-year) and contemporary (+12 percent year-over-year). On the land side, FIT and touring is up 23 percent versus the same time last year. At this point in 2024, the segment was down versus the previous year, so “we’re really in a good position,” said Lovell.
Travel Leaders Network also added 315 U.S. sales affiliates (agencies) in 2024. These have a combined sales total of $637 million. It added 41 Canadian affiliates (with combined agency sales of $128.4 million), too, not to mention four new associates (which falls more along the line of corporate and air bookings, rather than leisure travel) with an estimated total revenue of $218 million.
Over the past three years, TLN has added about 850 new members worth about $1.5 billion, according to Lindsay Pearlman, who took over the role of COO in November.
This all leads to the question, as posed by Lovell, “Where does it all stop?” To that point, he did answer his question, saying, “I don't think anybody really knows. Ever since Covid, we just continue to grow and grow and grow, and people continue to want to have great vacation experiences. They're willing to pay for it and things are looking really good. The consumer does love to travel, but [the most important thing is] they value the affirmation, confirmation and validation of a travel advisor, which is extremely important.”
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