If you want to be a successful travel agent, then follow these three steps as a springboard to success!
As with most business opportunities, being the best in the field takes a lot of preparation and a lot of work. Enjoying the success is the easy part. If you are stuck in a dead-end job and want to find a more fulfilling career as a travel agent, it has never been a more opportune time to find a way to receive travel agent training. Once you are trained, you will want to keep the following three things in mind to see your business grow from a fledgling travel agency to a full scale success.
1. Research a niche and fill it! As with most business opportunities in life, you can be a generalist or you can find a niche a fill it. The same can be said when you become a travel agent. Find out where the market is saturated--and avoid those aspects of the travel industry.
What you want to do is find areas of the travel world that are under served.For example, you may live in a city that hosts local conventions. You might want to link up with the convention planners and offer your services to their network members. Business travel is always an incredible money making niche. Or, you may find that people in your area are interested in taking cruises, but there are no travel related agents or agencies in the area that cater to this market. If this is the case, be a travel professional that fills this niche! Do your market research and find out where the needs are.
2. Stay flexible. When you first become a travel agent, there is a sincere desire to stick with one agency and sign a contract of exclusivity to that agency for a set period of time.
Resist this temptation at all costs! This is the equivalent of locking yourself into a lease on a house or a car. A contract such as these are incredibly difficult to be released from. If you receive excellent training than you will have marketable skills and many travel agencies in the area may seek you out. You want to maintain some level of professional flexibility so you can negotiate the best commissions for yourself. Remember, flexibility is key.3. Be exuberant! When you become an agent, you are selling fantasies just as much as you are selling travel packages. Be excited about the accommodations, the restaurants in the area, the attractions near the hotel. Your excitement and exuberance is contagious and, as any successful travel agent will tell you, such a positive attitude translates into financial success.
Research, flexibility, and a positive mental attitude will not only guarantee that you will make a living as a travel agent, but it will almost guarantee your financial success.
J.R. Shanley has a site where he shares the best available training on how to become a travel agent.