The idea of a business whose service line was organizing trips began with Thomas Cook a British Baptist preacher founded his firm Thomas Cook & Son back in 1841 that began by organizing railway excursions but branched out beyond that to organize tours to Europe and eventually the United States.

For much of the 20th century, booking travel was largely the purview of travel agents who had specialized systems and the connections to book the travel as well as accommodations. Agents made the effort to know destinations in order to make recommendations. While travel agents are still active and provide value, much of what agents did is now being done by individuals using internet sites, social media, and smart phones apps. Smart phone apps and websites from hotels, airlines, and other vendors or online travel agencies (OTAs) like Expedia, Booking.com, Travelocity, and Priceline have made the process of comparison and booking of transportation and accommodations that much easier. Online services may look to their online ticket operations purely as a way to save money, but they can also create their own travel/accommodation packages and perks. The internet has even brought new services like VRBO, AirBNB, and other similar vendors provide alternatives to hotels and other more traditional accommodations.

Some travel agents have successfully made the transition by being very specialized or marketing themselves more as consultants. This includes membership-based luxury travel concierge services and destination management companies (DMC) that offer a range of expertise and can help plan everything from flights, to hotels, to excursions.

The information in this section of the guide is specifically focused on resources that cover this particular part of the overall travel and tourism industry. We have also tried to include resources that provide data and information that will help researchers develop their own market profile. For those doing research in this industry and needing to look at Census data in particular, this is an industry covered by two specific SIC and North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) and North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) codes. For more information on search strategies, you can use our Doing Industry Research guide.

The North American Product Classification System (NAICPS) is a hierarchical structure consisting of sections, subsections, divisions, groups, subgroups, and trilateral products. It is a market- or demand-based, hierarchical classification system for products (goods and services) that is not industry-of-origin based but can be linked to the NAICS industry structure.