Research Reports

Non-Members ASTA's White Papers and Research Reports are available for sale though our ASTA Store.

ASTA's research reports include both research conducted by ASTA and research commissioned from third parties. The Travel Agency Benchmarking Series is based on surveys conducted with our Research Family panel of agencies. Other recent research commissioned by ASTA includes Consumer Awareness research, Best of Both Worlds: Quantifying How Travel Agents Save Consumers Time and Money, Traveler Decision Making Study and Value of Travel Agents Study.

Please log in to see the full content.

• 2021
• 2020
• 2019
• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015

• 
  February 4, 2021 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Feb 2021
  A Dose of Reality. Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. February’s report includes vaccine behaviors and attitudes.
  
  
• 
  January 13, 2021 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Jan 2021
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. January’s report includes a focus on the emotional impact of the pandemic.
  
  

Back to Top ^

• 
  December 11, 2020 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Dec 2020
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. December’s report includes a focus on the roll-out of the vaccine.
  
  
• 
  November 18, 2020 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Nov 2020
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. November’s report includes consumer sentiments resulting from the post-2020 election landscape.
  
  
• 
  October 29, 2020 — Hosted Travel Agent Income Report 2020
  This report focuses on the latest income trends among hosted travel advisors with 3+ years of experience.
  
  
• 
  October 7, 2020 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Oct 2020
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. October’s report includes consumer sentiments on COVID-19 vaccines.
  
  
• 
  September 9, 2020 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research Sept 2020
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. September’s report includes a focus on travel and other impacts to the Labor Day Holiday weekend.
  
  
• 
  July 8, 2020 — Back-to-Normal Barometer - ASTA Consumer Research July 2020
  Public opinion research covering concerns, confidence levels, and month-to-month trends including societal and personal impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. July’s report includes sentiments surrounding what is worrying consumers the most; the second wave of infections, job loss, reopening travel and businesses too soon, and the lack of clear guidance.
  
  
• 
  May 29, 2020 — Travel Advisor Service Fees Report 2020
  Charging fees leads to more income for travel advisors—to the tune of almost 50% more income. Advisors who charged service fees earned 46% more than those who didn’t charge. Advisors who charged consultation fees earned 40% more.
  
  

Back to Top ^

• 
  December 19, 2019 — How America Travels - 2019 U.S. Travel Advisor Survey (Executive Report)
  The 2019 How America Travels National Study: Travel Advisor Survey, sheds light on the perceptions of travel from the perspective of travel advisors. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  December 19, 2019 — How America Travels - 2019 U.S. Travel Advisor Survey (Full Report)
  The 2019 How America Travels National Study: Travel Advisor Survey, sheds light on the perceptions of travel from the perspective of travel advisors. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  December 19, 2019 — How America Travels - 2019 U.S. Traveler Survey (Executive Summary)
  The 2019 How America Travels National Study, sheds light on Americans’ perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel advisor community to be the voice of America’s travelers, just as travel agents represent the interests of their clients every day. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  December 19, 2019 — How America Travels - 2019 U.S. Traveler Survey (Full Report)
  The 2019 How America Travels National Study, sheds light on Americans’ perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel advisor community to be the voice of America’s travelers, just as travel agents represent the interests of their clients every day. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  September 12, 2019 — Travel Agent Income Report 2019
  The average income for established agents increased 10% from 2018. Newer agents were 23% less likely to report that selling travel was their primary source of income than experienced agents.
  
  

Back to Top ^

• 
  December 3, 2018 — How America Travels – ASTA’s 2018 Consumer Research Study
  (Executive Summary)
  Funded by Carnival Corporation & plc, the 2018 version of “How America Travels” provides key insights into the travel ecosystem, including emerging trends related to the use of “sharing economy” services, new daylight into the consumer travel planning and booking processes, factors that help turn non-cruisers into cruisers and changing consumer needs as travel agents transition to travel advisors. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  December 3, 2018 — How America Travels – ASTA’s 2018 Consumer Research Study
  (Full Report)
  Funded by Carnival Corporation & plc, the 2018 version of “How America Travels” provides key insights into the travel ecosystem, including emerging trends related to the use of “sharing economy” services, new daylight into the consumer travel planning and booking processes, factors that help turn non-cruisers into cruisers and changing consumer needs as travel agents transition to travel advisors. Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  September 18, 2018 — Travel Management’s Impact on Corporate Profitability & Productivity
  The purpose of the survey is to determine the perceived impact of travel management companies (TMCs) and travel agencies on the profitability and productivity of organizations. You will also learn how organizations view their relationships with TMCs / travel agencies, what aspects of the relationship with a TMC / travel agency have the most impact on the success of a managed travel program, the pros and cons of utilizing a TMC / travel agency and so on.
  Click Here to access this report
  
  

Back to Top ^

• 
  August 1, 2017 — How America Travels - sheds light on America's perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel agent community
  (Full Report)
  sheds light on America's perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel agent community to serve as the voice of America's travelers, just as travel agents serve as the voice of their clients every day.
  Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  August 1, 2017 — HowAmericaTravels — How America Travels sheds light on America's perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel agent community
  (Executive Summary)
  How America Travels sheds light on America's perceptions of travel and better enables ASTA and the travel agent community to serve as the voice of America's travelers, just as travel agents serve as the voice of their clients every day. This year, in partnership with leading global research firm, Penn Schoen Berland (PSB), ASTA committed to conducting a wide-ranging, scientific survey of the American public to understand their perspectives and priorities. How America Travels gives
  Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  June 23, 2017 — Unmanaged to Managed — Why and How Companies Formalize Travel Programs
  (Executive Summary)
  ASTA has partnered with The Company Dime to conduct a study on the conversion of unmanaged business travel to managed travel. The results of this executive summary come from in-depth research consisting of a survey plus interviews with travel management company executives to understand the reasons large and small businesses implement travel management practices.
  Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  June 23, 2017 — Unmanaged to Managed — Why and How Companies Formalize Travel Programs
  (Full Report)
  ASTA has partnered with The Company Dime to conduct a study on the conversion of unmanaged business travel to managed travel. The results of this executive summary come from in-depth research consisting of a survey plus interviews with travel management company executives to understand the reasons large and small businesses implement travel management practices.
  Click Here to access this report
  
  
• 
  April 5, 2017 — 2016 ASTA Service Fee Report
  The ASTA Service Fee report, seeks to discover current service fee practices in the travel agency industry in addition to travel agents’ exploring other revenue sources such as consultation fees, travel insurance, mark-ups and others.
  Click Here to Purchase this report
  
  
• 
  March 8, 2017 — ASTA Labor and Compensation Report
  ASTA’s annual Labor and Compensation report seeks to discover current employment trends and compensation models in the travel agency industry. Insights into compensation packages and classifications, recruitment of travel agents as well as agencies’ plans to handle the new Department of Labor (DOL) overtime regulations will be beneficial to various industry segments related to travel agencies.
  Click Here to Purchase this report
  
  
• 
  March 1, 2017 — ASTA Financial Benchmarking Report
  This report provides a generous amount of data and information on the financial trends of ASTA agency members including revenue, sales, transactions, number of clients, profit and so on. This information will be very beneficial to current and prospective ASTA members, consortia, franchise companies, host agencies and supplier partners alike.
  Click Here to Purchase this report
  
  

Back to Top ^

• 
  November 18, 2016 — ASTA Agency Profile Report
  This report provides a bountiful amount of data and information of ASTA member agencies’ key demographics, including agency location and business model, sales volume and profit trends, sales splits (including domestic vs. international and leisure vs. corporate)...
  Click Here to Purchase this report
  
  

Back to Top ^

• April 16, 2015 — 2015 Traveler Decision Making Study
  Learning how consumers decide on the type of trips they take was a primary goal of the study. Much detail is including in the report on how they make travel decisions...
  
  
• March 6, 2015 — 2014 Labor & Compensation Report
  This study finds an increasing issue for many travel agencies is the ability to hire new employees.