Business travellers, on whom certain segments of the industry had relied for profitability, saw their travelling activity cut back in 2000, and further curtailed in 2001. Volumes have been slow to recover, and there is widespread speculation that the change in behaviour has been permanent, requiring the industry to pursue profitable operations with a greater preponderance of price-sensitive leisure travellers.

Excess capacity and discounting were observed in a number of sectors, including accommodation and transportation.

Certain areas of the travel and tourism industry managed to avoid discounting through sharp reductions in capacity (as in the car rental market), or through re-deployment of capacity towards more appealing areas (as with cruise lines).

Mexico and Canada were the most popular destinations for departing US travellers in 2003. These same countries also supplied the greatest number of arrivals in 2003.

A number of sectors and markets within the industry showed signs of recovery in 2003. Among these were the accommodation sector, cruise lines, and car rental, all of which were expected to realise value sales gains for the year. Growth was led mainly by domestic travel, which was quicker to rebound from recent challenges than was international travel.

Domestic travellers account for the majority of industry sales.

Distribution patterns have been changing dramatically during the past five years, with internet websites winning share from traditional travel agencies. Consumer-orientated e-commerce within the industry takes a variety of forms, including internet travel agencies such as Expedia, airline-owned websites such as Orbitz (a joint venture) and JetBlue.com (which accounted for 73% of the airline's bookings during the second quarter of 2003). Also popular is Priceline, an internet site with a unique "Name Your Price" business model.