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Press Release: Travel Industry Association of America
December 20, 2002
WASHINGTON, DC -- According to a recent Travel Poll by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), 26 percent
of Americans say they have used a travel agent to book at least one business, pleasure, or personal trip, flight,
hotel room, rental car, or tour in the past three years. This translates to more than 54 million American travelers.
With more and more Americans using the Internet to book travel, it is not surprising that this figure is down from
32 percent in October 1999.
TIA’s representative telephone survey of 1,300 U.S. adults found that half (50%) of Americans using a travel agent
for booking purposes in the past three years are frequent travelers, having taken five or more trips in the past
year. More than half (55%) of those booking through travel agents are men; 45 percent are women.
Four in ten (43%) travel agent users are Baby Boomer travelers, age 35 to 54 and one-third (33%) are Generation
X and Y travelers, age 18 to 34. A majority (60%) of those booking through travel agents are married and nearly
four in ten (38%) have a college degree or more.
Travelers booking through travel agents are different from all U.S. past-year travelers in a few ways. This group
is more likely than overall past-year travelers to be male (55% vs. 49%), have some post-graduate education (16%
vs. 11%), and have an annual household income of $50,000 or more (52% vs. 41%).
TIA is the national, non-profit organization representing all components of the $537 billion travel industry.
TIA's mission is to represent the whole of the U.S. travel industry to promote and facilitate increased travel
to and within the United States.
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Contact: Cathy Keefe 202-408-2183