Become a Travel Advisor
For who ?
YOU DON’T NEED ANY SPECIAL DIPLOMA TO GET STARTED.
Being type A is mandatory to become a good travel advisor, you need to be a meticulous planner, be an excellent researcher, and possess extreme attention to detail. For example, you have to remember that they’re going there for their anniversary and you’re somehow able to get a picture from their wedding to be put in the room and their favorite champagne that they popped on their wedding day, those little things make a difference.
DEVELOPING A NICHE IS ESSENTIAL.
No one can have an encyclopedic knowledge of the whole world, so the most successful travel agents choose a specialty. You might focus on cruises or African safaris or trips to Italy. To beome a travel advisor expert, you have to know every hotel, every restaurant, and every excursion in all the areas of your destination.
YOU’LL MAKE A LIVING FROM TRAVELING THE WORLD LIKE A ROCK STAR.
You have to think about this as a lifestyle rather than a career. There’s no other industry where you get to travel like this. You’ll regularly go on discounted trips to luxury resorts sponsored by hotel companies. You will be able to work from anywhere on the world but you have to keep in contact with clients 24/7/365, no matter what time zone you’re in. And while technically anyone can work in this field, only those who are detail-oriented and meticulously organized will excel
HOTEL REPS WILL BECOME YOUR BEST FRIENDS.
When you’re working in an agency, hotel reps will come in every single day to give presentations about why you should recommend their hotel to your clients. Once you have a niche, you’ll see the same travel reps at your regular fam trips and you’ll develop a relationship with them from regularly sending them business. Those relationships are super important, because when you need to call in a favor, like upgrading someone’s room, you have someone to hook it up.
LEARNING TO BOOK TRAVEL IS LIKE LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE.
Every travel agency has access to a program called Global Distribution System, which lists options for airfare, hotels, car rentals, and so on. You have to know very specific codes to do anything. So, it can take a while to get familiar with it.
YOUR CLIENTS WILL ACT LIKE YOU’RE THEIR PERSONAL BUTLER.
You will get the occasional 2 a.m. call from a client in Africa asking for details that you definitely included on their itinerary. You have to remember that people can get very anxious about travel—your job is to be available and make sure they’re taken care of. That’s part of the added value of booking your trip with a travel agent.
CLIENTS WILL HIRE YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN FOR YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS.
Travel is a very personal thing, and the best travel agents have empathy for what the individual traveler wants to get out of the trip, whether it’s beautiful memories with their family or an adventure or a deeper understanding of the local culture. The personal touches you add are the reason people continue to use travel agents rather than booking for themselves online.
YOU WORK AS AN INDEPENDENT AGENT, YOU NEED YOUR OWN INSURANCE.
Let’s say you make a mistake on a client’s itinerary, causing them to miss their first-class flight that costs $6,000 a seat. If you did something wrong, you’re liable. You definitely need errors and omissions insurance, which can be expensive, but if you accidentally screw something up, you don’t have to pay out of pocket for the cost of the mistake.
YOU EARN MONEY BASED ON THE TRIPS YOU BOOK FOR YOUR CLIENTS.
You wil be an independent agent, which means you work for yourself but remain affiliated with us, your host agency. As an independent agent, you don't have a base salary, you get paid based on commission.