AARC carries on: Transactions climb
even as agency locations decline
status report on the nation’s retail travel agents wouldn’t be complete without a peek at the ARC statistics.
Even though many travel sellers and suppliers have moved beyond the traditional business models, the ARC channel remains
broad and deep and its transaction volume continues to rise.
In round numbers, ARC processes
$5 billion a month in remittances
from more than 20,000 travel agency
nying charts, some well-documented
long-term trends suggest that the
complexion of the ARC channel is
changing.
Most notable, of course, is the decline in the number of agency locations. In the decade following the first
commission caps in 1995, the number of retail locations (excluding un-
International Sales a Rising Share of ARC Business
Domestic
International
90
80
Total Sales in $ Billions
70 31.6% 33%
60 31% 32.3% 28.3%
28.5%
50
40 67.7% 68.4% 67% 71.5% 71.7% 69% 65.7%
30 61.5% 63.7% 59.3% 57.2%
20
10
0
Performance in 2005 shows
that the intermediary market
and the ARC channel are still in
reasonably good health.
34.3% 42.8%
38.6% 40.8% 36.3%
and corporate locations in the U.S.,
on behalf of some 150 U.S. and for-
eign airlines, railroads and other trav-
el suppliers.
In calendar year 2005,
ARC cleared just under
165.8 million transactions, a 3% increase over
the prior year. The total
dollar volume rose 7% to
over $70.5 billion, including $8 billion in taxes.
These can be taken as signs
that the intermediary market in
general, and the ARC channel in
particular, is in reasonably good
health.
But as shown in the accompa-
attended ticket-printer sites) fell 40%,
from 33,593 to 20,003, as of Dec. 31,
2005.
The decline was most pronounced
among home offices, defined as the
headquarters of multibranch chains.
There were 2,236 such headquarters
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Number of ARC Locations, 1989-2005
Source: ARC Reports
Single Office Branch Home Office
Ratio of Branches to Headquarters
8
7
7. 3
6. 8
6
6. 1
5. 6
5
5.0
4
4. 4
3. 8
3 3.0
3. 4
2
1
0 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
25,000
21,875 20,424
18,750
15,625
12,500
11,020
9,375 8,204
7,897
6,250
2,692
3,125
1,086
0
1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005
