The Top 20 Most Powerful Travel Agencies in 2022

Travel Weekly has released its 2022 Power List, an annual ranking of the largest, most successful retailers in the travel industry, based on full-year 2021 sales. Leisure travel bounced back in a big way last year but business travel still has ways to go to reach pre-pandemic levels. Nonetheless, there's lots of optimism and the 2022 rankings paint a clear picture of which companies are leading the industry. The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic forced Travel Weekly to freeze the rankings last year as many agencies weren't able to meet the traditional minimum sales threshold to be considered. As travel continues to recover midway through 2022, we now have a better idea of the travel agencies wielding the most power right now. Here's a look at the top 20.

Employee-owned agency World Travel rounds out this year's list of the 20 most powerful travel agencies, reporting 2021 sales of $393.1 million. Despite dropping three spots from last year's list, World Travel is outpacing the industry average when it comes to business bookings and was recently recognized at the International Business Awards for its impressive response to the pandemic.

A host agency with just under two dozen employees, OutsideAgents.com is a travel agency to watch for after climbing up 15 spots from 34th in 2021. The company looks to build on its $454.3 million in sales from last year as travel continues to recover.

Travvy award-winning Cruise Planners, a privately-owned franchiser of home-based travel agencies with a whopping 2,500 franchisees, has risen into the top 20 on Travel Weekly's Power List after reporting $545 million in sales last year.

Fresh off of a record-setting first quarter in 2022, Scottsdale, Arizona-based Arrivia reported $700 million in sales last year and also hired more than 1,000 team members throughout the year.

ATG jumped three spots on the Power List in 2022, reporting $982 million in 2021 sales and making the most of pandemic-prompted downtime by launching as many as a half-dozen new products.

World Travel Holdings is heading into the second half of 2022 with tons of optimism after climbing one spot from 16th in 2021. The company reported $1 billion in sales last year and notes that land bookings are hitting record levels while the Villas of Distinction brand is experiencing back-to-back record years.

Acquired by JPMorgan Chase this spring, Frosch reported $1.23 billion in sales in 2021, which was good enough to keep it at 13th on the Power List. Frosch had a busy year, nonetheless, acquiring Valerie Wilson Travel (No. 35 on the 2021 Power List) and the corporate business of Conlin Travel (No. 45 on the 2021 Power List).

AAA Travel holds steady at 12th on the Power List in 2022. The privately held company selling a vast majority of leisure travel reported just over $1.9 billion in sales last year and says that demand is strong for travel in 2022.

After not ranking in 2021, Hopper finds itself in a tie for 10th in 2022. The company grew its year-over-year revenue by as much as 300 percent last year and currently projects that 2022 revenue will be 30 times more than 2019.

With 2021 sales of $2 billion, Direct Travel, a privately held company offering services for business travel, meetings and incentives, group travel and vacations, is down only one spot from last year after acquiring the corporate travel business of Short's Travel Management, which ranked 28th on the 2021 Power List.

The technology company behind OTAs CheapOair and One Travel, Fareportal is up one position from last year but still has big goals after doing $2.2 billion in sales and budgeting for 25 percent growth in 2022.

Internova Travel Group, a privately held company, remains in the top 10 for 2022 after reporting $2.5 billion in sales in 2021. The company's subsidiaries include the likes of Travel Leaders Group, Cruise Specialists and Nexion Travel Group, among others.

Corporate Travel Management (CTM) was among the biggest risers in 2022, climbing from 11th to seventh and reporting 2021 sales of $2.55 billion. CTM has remained debt-free with sufficient cash reserves and returned an underlying profit in the second half of last year.

Flight Centre Ltd. subsidiary Flight Centre Travel Group Americas dropped eight spots on the Power List in 2022 after reporting $4.26 billion in sales last year. The company's brands include wholesaler Gogo Vacations, Student travel OTA Student-Universe, retailer Liberty Travel and travel management company FCM.

American Express Travel is up two spots from last year as the company reports that spending on travel is outpacing pre-pandemic levels. The full-service travel and lifestyle services provider for American Express cardholders saw sales reach $4.9 billion last year.

Privately held travel management company CWT remains steady at number five for 2022 despite executing a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last year. Nonetheless, the company came away with $350 million in new equity funding and is seeing a steady recovery in business travel.

A travel management company with a presence in as many as 107 countries, BCD Travel is up one spot from last year after reporting $6.5 billion in sales in 2021. BCD Travel made several big moves in 2021, including signing an agreement with Delta Air Lines to offset its employee travel via investment in sustainable aviation fuel.

American Express Global Business Travel remained in the same spot from 2021 and firmly in the top five. American Express GBT reported $7.1 billion in sales last year as well as $3.7 billion in new client wins and a 95 percent customer-retention rate.

Expedia Group fell from the top spot in 2022 after reporting $72.4 billion in sales last year. The publicly traded OTA boasts brands such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Vrbo, Trivago and Hotwire and is coming off a pair of big sales, including the sale of travel management company Egencia to American Express Global Business Travel and the sale of hotel operations management platform Alice to ASG.

An eventful but productive 2021 powered Booking Holdings to the top spot this summer. The travel agency's sales reached $76.6 billion last year. Additionally, the group reported $27.3 billion in gross travel bookings in the first quarter of 2022, marking an increase of 129 percent from the year prior and the highest quarterly amount in the company's history.