March 28, 2024

Is Being a Travel Agent in 2023 a Viable Career?



Published May 15, 2023, 12:20 p.m. by Liam Bradley


A career in travel can be a very rewarding experience. With the world becoming more and more connected, the demand for travel agents is expected to grow. The internet has made it easier than ever to research and book travel arrangements, but there are still many people who prefer to work with a travel agent.

As a travel agent, you will be responsible for helping people plan their perfect vacation. You will need to be able to find the best deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars. You will also need to be able to advise your clients on the best activities to do in their destination.

travel agents typically work for a travel agency, but there are also many opportunities to work independently. Many travel agents start out working from home, and then eventually move into an office setting.

The job outlook for travel agents is positive. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment of travel agents will grow by 3% from 2018 to 2028. This is faster than the average for all occupations.

If you are interested in a career in travel, now is a great time to get started. There are many online programs that can help you get started in the industry. With the right training, you can be a successful travel agent in no time.

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CEO today we're talking about is

2023 the year for you to be a travel

agent isn't actually a viable career for

you can you actually make a respectable

amount of money is the timing right for

you to be a travel agent if that sounds

like something that you want to know

keep on watching that's what we're doing

on the show today

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thank you

all right guys don't forget to take a

moment like subscribe and ring that

notification Bell over on YouTube we

bring you amazing content every single

week to help you we don't want you to

miss a thing and if you're new here you

might not know who I am my name is Cindy

Williams I'm known as the Wanderlust CEO

I am the founder of careers on vacation

which helps people just like you learn

how to launch grow and supersize your

travel businesses all over the world I

started in the industry almost three

decades ago back in the 90s early 90s

straight out of high school I was a

travel agent I worked for one of the

biggest brands in the world I own and

operate my own travel agency and

everything that we share with you here

on the show is tested either in my own

agency or in the hundreds and hundreds

of brands that we support in growing and

scaling their travel businesses too so

without further Ado we're gonna get into

today's content we're talking about

is being a travel agent a viable career

maybe you've been thinking about this

maybe you've been considering it maybe

you see people traveling the world and

literally living the travel lifestyle

and you're like man I wish I could do

that but what's the catch we're really

going to dive into all of that today so

here's the good news

being a travel agent having your own

home-based travel business is absolutely

a viable career I have proven that in

terms of what I've done in my own

business and in the hundreds and

hundreds of clients that we serve on an

annual basis and the thousands of agents

that we've certified all over the world

there are a ton of people making a

career out of being a travel agent or

growing and scaling their travel agency

so that's the good news now you have

freedom in your schedule yes there's

travel perks you get to travel you get

to do all the things those are all the

good things but what are the things that

sometimes people forget about we're

going to dive into that too and I want

to encourage you guys if you are very

new or you're in that consideration fee

phase where you're like is it for me I

want to tell you I have an hour-long

free master class this is actually like

a travel industry orientation that

teaches you how our industry works the

inner workings of it the things that no

one will tell you I don't hire travel

agents so it literally is from an

objective perspective just sharing the

knowledge that you need to know if

you're considering getting into it it's

a deep dive over an hour we're doing

kind of a general overview today and I'm

going to give you some great tips and

things to think about but I'll link that

Master Class down below because that's a

really a detailed Deep dive if you're

really getting serious about thinking

about it

um but I want to talk about

can you make enough money right so let's

start there because that's usually the

first question that people ask right I

will tell you guys I have been not I've

not only had my travel business for a

long time but I have been training

people how to start their own travel

businesses for even almost as long as

I've had my agency right so one of the

things that I've seen are Trends year

after year after year and obviously

covid was a difficult year 2020 but I

knew that travel was going to rebound I

don't think any of us anticipated that

it would rebound at the level that it

did so we've seen huge Blockbuster years

in 2021 2022 we're anticipating going

into 2023 I mean we have clients that

are already booked all the way into next

year and also there are things that are

sold out already into 2023 so all signs

point to this huge Resurgence of travel

travels back all of those things so that

part you can feel great about the other

thing that happened as a result of the

pandemic was a lot of clients got either

bad or poor Service as they were working

with these online uh outfits that didn't

treat them well or do a good job

servicing their reservations or all of

those things but also the world got a

little more complicated and also because

everybody's traveling the competition

for getting the right vacation is also

out there in the marketplace as well now

you might think oh wow that's a lot of

stuff to deal with but that's why

clients need you that's actually a

really good thing because if you know

how to be a confident skilled travel

agent that knows how to navigate those

things behind the scenes that puts you

in a position where people will line up

to work with you so we've found that

that adjustment in how people think

about travel agents again that's why

we're seeing this huge burst so all of

the stages set for you guys to really

kind of decide if this is the time for

you and I would say jump in sooner

rather than later because the the

clients that you were building the

building your book of business now is

going to support your business for the

next decade to come so taking advantage

of how this Market has shifted and how

it's changed is really a smart thing to

do now what let's talk through hurdles

because all this sounds great like oh I

get to travel Cindy I get freedom in my

schedule I get to do what I love which

is travel like great great great but I

want to give you the flip side of the

coin too and what I see happen to a lot

of Agents I get a lot of DMS on

Instagram and YouTube I get a lot of

questions all the things because you

guys know what I do is educate and train

in our industry and what a lot of people

will say is oh my gosh I didn't realize

XYZ so I want to give you those XYZ

things today so you know as you're

thinking about it what are the hurdles

that you can run up against the first

one and probably the biggest one that

I've seen recently is people do not

understand when they get in or they're

like yes I want to be a travel agent

they get excited about it and they think

it's going to be just like booking their

own vacation when the reality is is it

is not at all like that you know what

you want you know how you like to travel

you're very familiar with how you want

to put your own trip together but when

you are in the service of someone else

and you're actually collaborating with

them to bring their vacation dreams to

fruition not only is that a different

experience a different process a

different workflow but also you are now

in charge of being the facilitator of

someone's vacation investment that's a

big responsibility so some people are

paying ten twenty thousand dollars we've

even had Thirty forty thousand dollar

fifty thousand dollars safaris and and

River Cruises and different things that

are out there people are buying these

big bucket list vacations that is a

significant investment that you're now

responsible for navigating the service

on that making sure you have all of your

t's crossed and your eyes dotted for how

you put that together that giving them

the right information making sure that

you're doing everything properly so do

not underestimate the complexity in

which your new job will entail okay

that's the first thing is understanding

and you can do things like you can check

out cruise on vacation certification

there's other certification is out there

as well that will give you that skill

set of how to be a skilled trained

travel agent I would say pre-pandemic

you know sometimes you could DIY or

figure out how to put stuff together but

it's really important guys that you know

what you're doing okay and especially to

navigate this more complicated world so

think about a certification that might

be something that you have on your plate

or at least know that that's something

to in order to get to the place of being

the in-demand travel agent that will

really give you that extra credibility

it will also help you feel more

confident in what you're doing on a

daily basis now the second thing that a

lot of people don't realize is

understanding how our industry works a

lot of people are like great I'm going

to be a travel agent I'll just work for

an agency or I'll work for a host

company and then I they'll teach me how

to be a travel agent and then I'll

they'll give me leads and then I'll make

sales

that's not how it works so in our

industry how the model works for

Staffing travel agents is you are an

independent contractor which basically

means you are your own business at the

end of the day you make your own rules

you sign up for the work you want to do

you don't do the work you don't want to

do you don't mean you don't have to

maintain a schedule you don't actually

have to participate in any training that

they do nor can they require you to do

certain trainings or certain meetings

those are things when you're working in

a contract position and that's why

there's a lot of disjointedness in our

industry or agents who don't really know

what they're doing and that can be

frustrating and overwhelming right if

you're new to it and you're like I'm

just gonna try to like see how it goes

right so you have to understand that our

industry is a little bit different from

day one you have to put your own

training plan together you have to be

responsible for maintaining and

protecting your company making sure that

you're reducing your liability and how

you set it up how you interact with

clients all those pieces and also that

even if you are are in the service of a

host or an agency you are still going to

need to Market yourself and get your own

leads it is very rare to have a company

that feeds you leads they might give you

a couple extra or if they have overflow

there might be a little bit of that but

at the end of the day they're going to

say it's your job to build your business

under our umbrella right so you have

different choices and again my master

class goes into actually all the

different ways to get into the industry

I don't care which way you guys start

that class will help you really

understand what the pros and cons of

each setup are for getting in our

industry so please watch that again I'll

link it down below

and not the the right answer isn't the

same for everyone what's right for you

might not be right for me and vice versa

so you can kind of decide what's going

to be a fit for you but what I want you

to understand in terms of a hurdle is

understanding that you're set up and

that your responsibilities might be

different than you are thinking they're

going to be you have to hustle up your

own leads you have to run your business

you have to do all the things yourself

you have to make sure that you are

getting all of those things in place so

not only do you have to be a great

travel agent but the second half of that

is you need to learn how to be relevant

in this Online Marketplace right it's

it's not like when I started in the

industry almost 30 years ago where I

went through travel School became a

certified travel agent I sat at a desk

and then the agency fed me leads right

no when I started my own agency I was

already a million dollar seller and I

was like I'm going to be great at this

but then I'm like the phone's not

ringing what do I do I had to learn how

to be an exceptional marketer and that

is that is so important so understand

you have to do that work on your

business and work in your business for

those two things to come together in

order to really get to your full

potential of being a great travel agent

or scaling your business so hopefully

that's helpful

um

all right is this your year right here's

what I want you to ask yourself

maybe it is maybe it isn't that's why

you're watching this video right think

about do I have a passion for travel

have I always wanted to do this that is

the number one question I ask people

when they're thinking about getting into

the industry if the answer is yes then

you proceed to like step two right from

there are you going to do the work are

you going to do the learning that's

required you have to make sure that you

are committed to doing those things so

you can have the best result possible I

don't want you to get into this just to

like say let me see how it goes or I

mean there's nothing wrong with being a

hobby agent but even if you're going to

be a hobby agent like just do it the

right way get best practices so you can

make the most amount of money in that in

that hobby time that you have so I want

you to be serious about this endeavor I

want you to treat your business like a

business if you're prepared to do that

then I would say yes it probably is the

time to jump in probably the time to get

started for sure and here's the other

thing too like I've we've been doing

this for so many years I have to say we

had our gold digger conference if you

guys follow me over on on Instagram and

YouTube and Facebook all the places but

over on Instagram in particular we

showcase our gold digger Resort which is

where uh gold digger Retreat not Resort

I wish I had my own Resort that would be

amazing but we have a lot of our

students that come back for continuing

education you guys when we did our award

ceremony this year we had more people in

our Million Dollar Club and

multi-million dollar Club than we have

ever had in the history of my company so

I think that says so much about the

potential in our industry right now but

what is the one factor of all of those

people who were at our gold digger

conference they had all gotten earned a

certification they all got these got the

processes they all got set up properly

so they could maximize for their time

how they were growing their business so

think about that they all went through

careers on vacation whether you take

another path or mine I of course wish

you so much success but I will say that

if you are committed to putting the time

in and doing the things you should

absolutely go for it in 2023 what are

are you waiting for and I'll remind you

that you can visit us over at careers

onvacation.com if you do want to get

certified or you want to just do it the

right way from the beginning you want us

to show you every step of the way how do

you sell how do you Market how do you

get your automations in place what

customer service should happen how do

you protect your company all of those

things we share with you in our

Mastermind program which is part online

program that you get access to your

curriculum but you get to work with real

people you guys this is what's lacking

in our industry today you get to work

with me and my entire team that has

helped me grow my businesses to multiple

seven figures is where we're at today

guys and we're so proud that we have the

most video case studies compared to any

other educational program out there in

the industry we're so proud of that

we're also asked Affiliated and we won

five count them five Magellan Awards

this year for our work in the industry

in educating you guys so we're so proud

of that and we'd be honored to help you

you can visit us at chrisonvacation.com

ready now if you want to learn more

about how to apply for our programs and

we love to talk to you about your vision

see if it's a fit to work together

but guys that's it oh my gosh

we have one more video I think this year

and then we are going to be wrapping it

up so I want to tell you guys happy

holidays I hope you're enjoying all of

the good times like soak up like

remember a couple years ago and we

couldn't see family during the holidays

like soak up all of this time you guys I

wish you so much love so much abundance

wherever you are in the world and hey if

you're gonna miss me I am taking a

little time off for the holidays but you

can always find me over on Instagram

I'll be sharing all the fun traveling we

are doing some traveling we're doing

some fun stuff so check us out over

there and I'd love to interact with you

over there too so guys I'll see you I'll

see you well I'll see you next week and

then I'll see you next year all right

bye guys have a good day me

oh nothing

nothing wrong

hey guys Cindy Williams here if you like

that last video make sure you check out

all the other content on our Channel and

if you want to follow along and travel

with me around the world and see how I

run my amazing travel Brands and get

some great tips on how to grow your own

make sure you check out that other

content I'm going to drop a couple

videos here click those links I'll see

you next time bye guys

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