After Becoming a Travel Agent, What’s Next?

To an outsider, the job of a travel agent seems easy and carefree; go to exotic places, meet lots of people, and stay in luxurious hotels. However, this isn’t entirely accurate because the travel industry is always busy and very competitive. If you’re thinking about becoming a travel agent, then you must be ready to deal with the following demands of the job:

As a travel agent, you’ll be expected to negotiate airline or cruise slots, hotel reservations, or vacation packages on behalf of your client. This means making plenty of phone calls, emails, and such, and hoping you can come up with a deal that your client will find very enticing and convenient. You’ll be brushing up your communication skills a lot, since this part of the job requires confidence and some charm.

You’ll also be expected to advise your client when making a travel itinerary by taking into account various factors like holiday seasons, weather, and tourism laws. It’s not just families or private individuals whom you’ll be working with; your customer base may also include businesses, non-profits, and even government officials.

Finally, it will also be your duty to visit the hotels, cruise ships, and airliners themselves to see if they’re offering top-notch services or not. This is where your job will require you to make frequent trips to various destinations. 

Becoming a Travel Agent Can Be Fulfilling

With people’s insatiable desire to see the big world, the leisure and travel industry is one of the most rewarding fields. Although it’s serious business to deal with customers and arrange trips, becoming a travel agent can be fulfilling. It’s not every day that you get to enjoy both your work and passion. Here are some reasons why you will feel satisfied in your career as a home-based travel agent:

It expands your perception of the world.

Looking through different locations around the world and studying diverse cultures not only makes you more familiar in planning fantastic trips for your customers, but also changes you into a well-informed individual. You also get to appreciate how the travel and leisure communities and industry partners depend on each other for growth and development.

 

It enables you to help others.

The knowledge and experience you gain through your familiarization with trips and cruises as well as travel expos and exhibits bring great value to your customers. Besides recommending the most suitable travel packages for them, you’re also making sure they encounter only the best experiences and share your love for adventure with them.

 

It empowers you and others.

Designing dream getaways for your clients and making their lives easier are just some of the greatest things that make you feel contented in this career. You know in your heart how amazing it feels when you support your customers with your services and make a positive difference in their lives.

Top 4 Skills You Should Have as a Travel Agent

Whether your clients go out of town for business or leisure, travel is always a lucrative industry. People continuously come and go from one place to another, trying to see the world through new eyes or closing deals for their businesses’ growth and expansion. To enter and succeed in this rewarding industry as a travel agent, here are some important skills one should have:

Becoming a Travel Agent Successfully

Anyone can choose and pursue a travel agent job. However, there is a difference between becoming a travel agent and becoming a travel agent successfully.

Having organization skills and attention to detail are important. As a travel agent, your client expects you to lay out an orderly plan that consists of the activities or interests they may specify. For example, if a travel plan stretches out over the course of a few days, you must be able to make sure there aren’t any dull moments but still allow for flexibility. They should be able to get their money’s worth from the simplest things like an airliner which serves good food, much more from the bigger aspects like ambient and luxurious hotels.

Flexibility is also an advantage. Offering customized packages to clients with specific needs can boost satisfaction in service. Aside from your fixed packages and promotions, offering the option to customize a trip can attract individual consumers.

A travel agent must be competent, professional, and courteous. Through training and certification, you can assure your clients that you know what you’re doing. This is part of the customer service aspect of your business, which most consumers appreciate. Continuing education is also important to ensure your credibility and innovation.

Interpersonal skills come in handy, as well, since effective communication with your partners and clients can forge stable relationships. This network of ease and trust, in turn, allows your business’ stability, growth, and eventual success.

3 Skills You Need to Become a Travel Agent

Face it: as travel agents, you like being the expert. You like it when people approach you for advice, and when people come to you for help, especially when their last professional didn’t come through for them.

Undoubtedly, some want to become travel agents. When becoming a travel agent, though, you’ll need three important skills. These skills not only set you apart from other agents in other companies, but also help build trust from your clients.

Communication skills

Communication skills are probably the foremost one you’ll need in this business. You need to be able to communicate clearly to our clients. Especially with irate customers, that skill is vital because it can help put them at ease while trying to resolve their issues.

Computer skills

Thanks to technology and the Internet, you can do tasks that used to take hours or days to complete. You can issue tickets, change itineraries, rebook passengers on other flights, and even issue refunds on the spot. You need computer skills to accomplish any of those tasks.

Problem-solving skills

Finally, you need problem-solving skills. Some clients’ trips don’t work out, as mentioned, so they come to you for help. Depending on the situation, you can find another flight suitable to their plans or a room in another hotel nearby.

When you possess the above skills, you can better help our clients. When they become happy with our expertise, they’ll be sure to rely on you again the next time they go on a trip.

What It’s Like to Be a Travel Agent

If you are on the look out for a fulfilling career that provides you the opportunity to combine sales, and the interpersonal skills needed for providing quality customer service, and even logistics for that matter, then being a travel agent is right for you. Generally, travel agents are tasked to do the legwork of planning vacations or business trips. Travel agents fall under different classifications and the kind of training that they receive depends on their designation.

Travel agents usually work in sales, and they sell anything from transportation, lodging, to entertainment activities for individuals or groups who want to go on trips. They may also give advice on destinations, itineraries, and other matters related to vacation plans and business trips. Effective communication skills is also required for travel agents since they have to assess what the client wants and needs, while at the same time being mindful of their budget and preferences. Computer literacy is also expected of them because a bigger portion of their time is spent researching online for destinations and booking reservations.

There are also travel agents who are assigned to visit hotels, resorts, and restaurants that they recommend to clients. They have to evaluate the comfort, cleanliness, and quality of these places before sending off their clients to sleep and dine in them. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook posits that most travel agents focus on a specific type of travel like adventure tours or specializing in planning trips.

A No-fuss Way to Become a Travel Agent

Traveling is often expensive, but if given a chance most people would go for it anyway. In fact, millions of tourists travel to various parts of the world every year by plane, ship, train, car, or whatever it takes to reach their destination. They go solo, as a couple, with family, friends, and other groups on first class or economy class, whichever they can afford.

The reasons why people travel also vary—business, pleasure, educational, or religious—but whatever they are, traveling almost always provides great experiences. However, if you want to have an opportunity to travel for free or with less expense, you can do so by becoming a travel agent. For people who really love to travel, becoming a travel agent is the most ideal career path to take—you get paid for what you love to do!

The good news is, you can become a travel agent by enrolling in an online travel agent school. You even have the option to pursue this profession either on a full time or part time basis and in the comforts of your own home with no tests or exams required. The course is designed to teach you all the basics, from finding clients to booking all kinds of tours and getting repeat sales.

You’ll also be provided with the necessary support to become a successful travel agent. With so many people itching to travel year in and year out, becoming a travel agent can be a very lucrative career.

Travel Agents: Pathfinding Professionals

Once can’t just fly to another country without a solid plan in mind; that’s a big no-no when it comes to international travel. Without prior arrangements for the trip, or even so much as a draft itinerary, you’ll be in for a lot of hassles in a foreign land. This is where the ever-helpful travel agent can enter the picture and help you make the most out of your vacation or business trip.

A travel agent serves as a retailer of travel services, and represents various vendors such as airlines, hotels, railway operators, cruise liners, and the like. Simply put, travel agents can be tasked to arrange for the client’s air travel, ground transportation, lodgings, and tours. Travel agents simplify the process of planning for a holiday or business trip by organizing each itinerary in great detail in accordance with the client’s wishes.

Traditionally, travel agents could only be found at brick-and-mortar agency establishments. These days, one can find quite a number of reputable online travel agencies that offer unparalleled convenience. Regardless of whether the interaction takes place in person, over the phone, or through online correspondence, a travel agent will do his or her utmost best to ensure the success of every client’s trip.

It’s Not that Hard to Become a Travel Agent

If your idea of a dream job is to explore the world and be in charge of arranging other people’s dream vacation plans, then life as a travel agent may just be the thing for you. Unlike some professions, you don’t need a college degree to land a job as a travel agent. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that to qualify, all you need is a high-school level education. 

However, that doesn’t mean you should be content with having only the basic credentials While the occupational requirements aren’t that demanding, this also means that travel agencies will have to skim through a lot of potential employees who may have better credentials than you. This is where having additional skills and experience will definitely come in handy. 

Specifically, travel agencies prefer applicants who are quite well-versed in foreign languages—mostly because this eliminates the need to hire translators separately. Since you’ll be a front liner for the most part, a working knowledge of business management and marketing best practices should also come in handy. Finally, close familiarity with aviation and cruise liner protocols can prove quite helpful, since most of the trips you’ll be planning will involve air or sea travel, or even a combination of both.