How to Become a Travel Agent

Change is under way in the travel industry. Brick-and-mortar storefronts are becoming relics as independent consultants replace traditional travel agencies. You can thrive in this new home-based world. Knowledge, expertise and research are key. But ultimately, it's about service – at both ends of the travel dollar.How spoke with Dan Smith, the Pacific Northwest Chapter director of the National Association of Career Travel Agents, about selling travel packages, getting credentialed, finding customers and working from home.Maybe someone has a great circle of relationships and people are always coming to them and they say, "Why shouldn't I get paid for doing all this research? I like doing it, but I could be making money." A lot of people get into their 50s and say, "You know maybe I'll just start this as a part-time thing." Some are very successful at it. They can balance more than one life simultaneously. … If you have a family reunion and you have an affinity with travel, you will start talking to hotels, you will talk to airlines, resorts, maybe transportation systems.
There are some travel schools out there. I don't think that's a good place to get training necessarily. That's how a lot of people have started, but then they were able to go into a brick-and-mortar and file brochures, write tickets. There are few places to do that these days because so many brick-and-mortars are no longer available. "When I left the airline, I thought I knew travel. I knew nothing about travel," Smith said. "I knew how to get people on and off airplanes. It's a totally different world."It's learning about a place and being effective in communicating about the place. … I have a wholesale business, which means a customer and/or another travel agent will call me and say, "What do you know about Costa Rica?"
I have a guy I work with in Costa Rica. I send him a profile and budget. Here's the time frames, what the clients are thinking of doing. He will come back with an itinerary.Then I go back to the client and say, "Here is what we can do." … Part of the reason it works is because I am doing the boutique smaller properties, as opposed to the mega-properties.And when you are going to destinations, people aren't looking for the brass and glass. They want to experience a place. So I'm on both sides of the street. I am a seller and I am also a resource to the other travel agents. Then I turn around and say to somebody else, "I need information on how to get a ground operator in Naples that's not going to take advantage of people." … That's part of how we interact and support each other.