POWERLIST LTSIL REWOPI S T R T ESW IO P L R T ESW IO P L TSILREWOP
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POWER LIST P O W E R L I S T L I S
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ulation. In a small number of cases, certification
was made by an executive at the vice presidential
POWER
LIST
level but with financial oversight.
POWER
LIST
TSI L In several cases (as with P
riceline ), sales totals are
based on publicly d isclosed information because
the companies are publicly held. In a couple of in-
stances, privately held companies offered estimates;
these included BCD Travel and Travelocity.
Despite the Power List changes, a num- out early this year to companies that:
ber of companies that may have quali- • Had appeared on the list in previous
fied opted not to participate. In some years;
of these cases, Travel Weekly estimated • Had been in the news because of ac-their sales based on published material quisitions or had grown for other rea-and/or discussions with other parties in sons; or
the industry. • Had contacted Travel Weekly believ-Where a company did not certify its ing they qualified.
own sales figure, the source of its sales is All questionnaires were sent by email.
explained in parentheses. However, a few were returned by fax
The survey on which these rankings (sometimes emailed, as well).
were based included questions involv- While all cooperating listees did certify
REW O P ing sales figures; ARC sales; travel-re- sales, it must be kept in mind that even
lated subsidiaries; percentage of sales those numbers are difficult to verify be-from business, leisure, etc.; corporate cause the majority of travel sellers are
structure; and others. There were several privately held and under no obligation to
open-ended questions about recent and disclose finan
planned developments to which compa-
OWER nies could reply in any way they felt appropriate for them.
In an effort to keep up with relentless
changes, questions were added, removed
and tweaked to make them relevant.
Responses to the questionnaire determined the length of th
I S T
4 S I L e profiles that
accompany each listed agency. Some
companies supplied a minimum of information on developments in 2007 or
on the company itself; others had a lot
more to say. Companies were offered
the option of having an executive interviewed by a Travel Weekly editor. Several
took advantage of that opportunity.
The questionnaires that provide the
information for the Power List were sent cial data. Also, there is no
commonly accepted standard for calculating sales volume, and there is no clear-inghouse in the U.S. that tracks nonair-line sales, as ARC does for airline sales.
Where possible, Travel Weekly sought
to confirm accuracy in the figu res by referring to other data and to articles published in the past year. We also reviewed
responses for consistency and used whatever resources we had at our disposal to
ensure accuracy.
There may be companies that should b e
on the list but that escaped our attention.
Representatives of such companies should
contact Travel Weekly Managing Editor
Rebecca Tobin at rtobin@travelweekly
.com so we can send them a questionnaire
for next year’s edition.
JUNE 23, 2008 WWW.TRAVELWEEKLY.COM
Methodology
Once again for the 2008
Power List, Travel Weekly
requested that gross sales
volume, the primary
number for ranking, be
certified by a company’s
owner, CEO or CFO. Re-
sponses showed that most
companies were happy to
cooperate with that stip-
