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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