TL;DR
- Travel agent spend rose 2.5% year on year in July 2026, per Barclays Consumer Card Spending data reported by Cruise Trade News.
- That was the second month running the agent channel grew.
- It happened even as overall travel spend slipped 0.3% and airline spend fell 6.0% over the same month.
- Hotels, resorts and accommodation also had a good month, up 2.6% year on year.
- Wider UK card spending rose 2.0% in July, its highest level in 12 months.
- The read for agents? Clients are still booking through people, even when they trim elsewhere.
What’s Happening With the Numbers
July’s spending figures give a straight answer for anyone wondering whether client enquiries are turning into real bookings. Travel agent spend grew again, up 2.5% year on year, according to Barclays Consumer Card Spending data reported by Cruise Trade News. That made it two months in a row of growth for the agent channel.
What made the number stand out was the company it kept. Over the same month, overall travel spend slipped, down 0.3% year on year, and airline spend fell further still, down 6.0%. So while parts of the market cooled, the money moving through agents went the other way… up, and for the second month running.
A Closer Look
It was not only agents having a good month. Hotels, resorts and accommodation spend rose 2.6% year on year, a sign that people were still committing to the stay itself even where they trimmed the flights. Put the two together, agents up and accommodation up while airlines dipped, and you get a picture of clients spending with care rather than spending less.
Widen the lens and the backdrop was steady too. UK card spending as a whole rose 2.0% in July, reaching its highest level in 12 months. Rohan Kumar, Head of Spend Insights at Barclays, put it plainly: “Card spending strengthened further in July, reaching its highest level for 12 months, with both essential and non-essential spend remaining in growth.” Holidays, it seems, are still sitting firmly in that non-essential-but-non-negotiable bracket.
The Agent Angle
A run of good months tells you the agent channel is holding its own in a market that is picking and choosing. When a client will happily book the hotel but hesitates over the flight, the value of someone who can see the whole trip and balance it out becomes easy to feel. That is what these figures describe.
Here is the part you can put to work this week. Next time a price-sensitive client wavers, wondering whether to piece the trip together themselves to save a few pounds, these numbers are your gentle counter. Agent spend grew while people trimmed their flights and their extras, so the market is showing that plenty of travellers still want a person handling the whole thing when money feels tight, rather than a booking screen at midnight. You can share that without a hard sell, because it is simply what happened in July.
One strong month is easy to wave away as noise. Two in a row reads more like a habit forming, and that is the more encouraging way to hold it next time someone asks how the industry is doing.
Where This Helps
I know a spending report is not the most thrilling thing to arrive in your inbox this week… but this one is worth clocking. A single month of card-spend data will not change how you work. What it does give you is a clean line to reach for when the industry mood feels wobbly, or when a client asks whether people are still booking holidays at all. Two months of agent-channel growth, in a market that is otherwise trimming, is a tidy answer to have ready. Worth filing, and worth repeating.
