The World’s Most Valuable Travel Brands

Ever wonder how much a company’s brand was worth?

Brand valuations are tricky, reflecting as they do not just a company’s revenue-generating capability but also its hold on consumers’ hearts and minds. How do you put a price on popularity?

No worries, there are companies whose business it is to round up the relevant data and assign values to companies’ brands. One such company is Brand Finance, which this week published “Global 500 2014 – The World’s Most Valuable Brands.”

To compute the value of a company’s brand, Brand Finance uses the Royalty Relief method, which purports to establish the price a company would be willing to pay for its brand if it didn’t already own it. The calculation factors in a company’s revenues, but also includes such harder-to-quantify variables as sustainability and emotional connection.

Overall, Apple’s was the most valuable brand, at $104,680 million, followed by Samsung and Google.

Six airlines were included among the top 500, as follows:

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• Emirates – 234 ($5,481 million)
• Delta – 286 ($4,736 million)
• American – 298 ($4,563 million)
• Lufthansa – 331 ($4,165 million)
• United – 379 ($3,831 million)
• Singapore – 458 ($3,250 million)

The only other pure travel company on the list was Priceline, which was ranked 178, ahead of all the airlines, with a brand values at $6,950 million.

No hotel or rental-car companies made it onto the list.

Reader Reality Check

Surprises, either of rank, inclusion, or omission?

This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.