So You Want To Be A Travel Agent? Read THIS

So, you want to be a travel agent? Well, you’ve certainly picked an exciting field. One thing is for sure…travel agents are very busy. People are always planning trips. But how do you break into such a competitive field? If you’re wondering, fear not. This article is going to give you a few tips that should get you started.

First of all, there are two ways you can go about doing this, thanks to the Internet. You can either get a traditional travel agent gig at an agency (you still need to know what you’re doing) or you can set up your own home office.

Secondly, you need to understand the mindset of people who are looking to “get away from it all”. They are not interested in fancy features. What they are interested in is having their needs satisfied. So simply telling them that their hotel room comes with a sauna isn’t going to thrill them to death. However, telling them that it comes with a sauna so that they can relieve all their stress and anxiety IS going to be something that is going to press their hot buttons. It’s all about benefits…not features. Remember that.

Finally, do you need to go to a travel agent school? The answer, if you want to become a travel agent that actually sells travel, is no. The reason is because schools teach you all the technical mumbo jumbo such as GDS but they don’t teach you how to actually sell travel. In other words, they don’t teach you the really important thing…how to connect with your prospects. Remember, it’s not about features or pressing buttons to find out what rooms are available. It’s about satisfying your prospect’s needs.

This is why there are so few really GOOD travel agents around. By understanding the above, you can become one of the good ones.

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The Pros And Cons Of Being A Travel Agent

There is an old saying, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the street.” It is so true. A lot of people think that becoming a travel agent is all glamour and glitz. It’s not. Sure, there are lots of perks but it isn’t all roses. This article is going to look at just some of the pros and cons of being a travel agent.

One of the biggest pros is that it’s a very interesting job, especially when you have people who are looking for very exotic vacations. Believe it or not, there are those in the world for whom a trip to the great pyramids of Egypt would be a ho-hum experience. You’re going to run into travel plans that extend to several continents. These are real challenges and very exciting to plan.

On the other side of the coin, you have the mundane work such as looking up flight schedules and hotel vacancies. After a while, this becomes pretty dull and unfortunately, these tasks take up a lot of your time. No, it’s not all glamour and glitz going through brochures to find all these exotic locations. Some of it is downright boring. Get used to it.

The pay is very good, especially if you work as an independent contractor. However, there is a downside to not working exclusively for one agency, and that’s training. If an agency knows that you’re working for other people, they are not going to train you, period. So you are going to be on your own for that. On the other hand, if you work for just one agency, that is going to greatly limit your opportunities.

Then of course there are the hours. Travel agents have a weird life. There are going to be times, depending on where you live, where there is going to be more work than others. So if you need to be busy all the time, this may not be the best career choice in the world. Conversely, if a nightmare schedule (the busy season) makes you break out in a sweat, this may also not be for you. It isn’t your typical 9 to 5 job.

Good travel agents are hard to find, so if you work hard at it and know your stuff, you can be very much in demand and make a nice living.

As long as you understand that it’s not all roses.

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3 Tips For Becoming A Travel Agent

If you’re thinking of becoming a travel agent, either at an agency or at your own home office, there are a few things that you will probably want to consider before you dive into this profession. Good travel agents, believe it or not, are far and few between. So if you want to be one of the good ones, I strongly suggest that you take the following advice.

For starters, specialize in something. Know that one thing inside and out. Too many travel agents will book you a cruise to nowhere or a flight to no man’s land and not know the difference between the two. It is absolutely impossible to know everything about every phase of travel…at least not in a short amount of time. So specialize. You’ll be much more in demand if you really know your stuff about one specific thing.

Become a notary public. If you’re scratching your head right now wondering what the heck this has to do with travel, directly, it doesn’t. However, you will find that many people who do have to travel, especially for business or legal reasons, will have to get things notarized. Believe it or not, it is getting harder and harder to find notary publics these days, so you will have something that is in demand and will give you an additional income because of the people you will meet up with.

Do not, under any circumstances, sign an exclusivity contract with any agency that you work for. You are an independent contractor and as such, they have no grounds to force you to sign such a contract. You will, of course, want to check with a lawyer on this one. But I strongly advise against signing any such contract. It may very well be against the law.

There are many benefits to becoming a travel agent. Like I said, good ones are hard to find so if you really know your stuff, you will be greatly in demand. People will actually come looking for YOU to book their trip. That means more money for you in YOUR pocket.

And we can all use a little more of that…especially in these tough economic times.

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