Press Release - July 2026

• Travel agents are expected to end 2026 with turnover of about €14.12 billion, up around 4.5% year-over-year, while wholesalers' revenue is forecast to rise 4%, to €6.44 billion.

• Travel demand is tending to normalise and slow its growth rate, after the sharp gains recorded in the years following the pandemic.

• The business integration processes carried out in recent years have reinforced supply-side concentration, increasing the weight of the sector's leading groups in the wholesale and retail segments.

• INFORMA's DBK Sectoral Observatory recently published these insights in the 'Travel Agents and Tour Operators' Sectoral Report.

Madrid, 28 July 2026.- According to INFORMA's (Cesce's subsidiary) DBK Sectoral Observatory—a leading provider of business, financial, sectoral, and marketing information in Spain and Portugal—tour operator and travel agency activity continued to grow in 2025, although it slowed compared with the strong advances of previous years. Demand normalisation after the pandemic, higher prices and a context of elevated economic and geopolitical uncertainty drove this slowdown.

Travel tour operators, i.e. wholesale trade, generated revenue of about €6.2 billion that year, representing growth of 5.1% from 2024, when a 9.3% change was recorded.

Meanwhile, the retail market (travel agents) rose 5.5% (+10.3% in 2024), reaching €13.5 billion. Despite this additional growth, the figure still remained below the €14.5 billion posted in 2019.

Profitability in the sector has evolved favourably in recent years, alongside rising revenue. However, an increase in the main cost items, particularly accommodation, transport and staffing, limited margin improvement in 2025, a trend expected to continue in 2026.

Demand normalisation in tourism is expected to continue translating, in the short and medium term, into a gradual slowdown in the growth rate of tour operator and travel agency business, following the exceptional momentum recorded in the years after the pandemic.

The wholesale segment is expected to post revenue growth of around 4% in 2026, to €6.44 billion, while the retail segment is forecast to increase by around 4.5% that year, ending at about €14.12 billion.

Recent corporate M&A activity has increased the degree of supply-side concentration. In 2025, the top five wholesalers reached a combined market share of 43%, while the top five retail travel agencies jointly accounted for 31% of total revenue.

Data Synthesis

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