In the 28 years that Andrea Miller has been a travel advisor, she says that there have always been unprofessional advisors in the industry. A low barrier to entry, poor training and a lack of regulations are partially to blame, she says, but in the last five years, the situation has gotten worse.
Miller and other advisors attribute this growing trend to an influx of new-to-the-industry job seekers looking for easy remote work, coupled with misrepresentations of the career flourishing on social media.
Misleading Social Media Portrayals
Christina Vieira, founder and lead travel planner at Showcase the World Travel, says she has seen social media posts that “promise high commissions and extensive travel perks with little to no commitment, which can be misleading.”
For example, one post promised “70-80% commission per booking from your phone, with no quotas or minimum bookings and free travel.”
Miller, who is a senior travel advisor at Sea it All Travel, has also scrolled past problematic social media posts from multilevel marketing (MLM) recruiters. They publish screenshots of supplier emails offering advisors deep discounts and explain that to avoid paying consumer rates, they “can sign up today and cruise for $80 next week,” she says.
Miller also warned that marketing geared at prospective advisors heavily simplifies the role, saying she has seen posts claiming, “If you’ve ever booked your own cruise, hotel, flights or resort, then you’re already a travel agent.”
You should have a healthy amount of fear when you start this job without experience.
She has seen consumer travel groups filled with recruiters telling people that they can become agents and see the world on someone else’s dime. And viral posts by influencers portray travel as something anyone can do and make a career out of.
When new advisors think the job is easy, they don’t have the right mindset, says Tawnee Sons, the co-founder and chief operating officer of World2Sea Inc., a Cruise Planners franchise.
They don’t “learn, grow and establish the basic necessities of information to succeed, but jump right in and sell whatever they see online,” she said.
This lack of training can have serious consequences. She recounts incidents when former clients returned to her agency after bookings with inexperienced agents went awry, including one case where an advisor forgot to make a client’s final payment.
Enabler or Educator: What Is a Host Agency’s Role in This?
Unfortunately, many host agencies attracting these advisors are not providing education about an advisor’s ethical and legal responsibilities, from how to safely handle a client’s funds to how to create an enforceable booking agreement.
And a lack of government regulations and certifications means that anyone can join and start booking once they are part of a host agency.
“These advisors are joining hosts offering minimal support and training because those are the least expensive to join,” said Vieira, who sees lots of wannabe advisors researching no-fee or low-fee agencies to join. “They are promised training and likely receive supplier courses, but nothing on marketing, building a business or client care. I think it is a case of you don't know what you don't know.”
These advisors are joining hosts offering minimal support and training because those are the least expensive to join.
Vieira speaks from experience — she admits to joining the first agency that called her back when she started as an advisor in 2017. She said she only received a two-hour Skype training, and that it ended up costing her in the long run, leading her to eventually open her own agency that operates ethically and offers proper training.
"MLMs and irresponsible host agencies who are focused on recruiting warm bodies are the primary cause [of this increased lack of professionalism],” Miller said. “They don’t qualify people or give them a realistic view of what will be required of them. And more recently, travel suppliers’ partnerships with social media influencers have also contributed to the problem.”
Sons explains that high turnover is not a concern for many host agencies, who need high volume to provide large-scale benefits and amenity programs that will, in turn, entice more sales and more agents to book under them.
"Host agencies are always playing a numbers game,” she said. “The more [people] who work with them, the more they earn in many ways.”
Can Travel Advising Be a Professional Side Hustle?
Sons has turned away eight prospective travel advisors from joining her agency, looking for cautionary signs such as part-time requests and overconfidence.
For Vieira, a red flag to look out for is someone who wants to be a side-hustling advisor “in perpetuity.” But she concedes that because it can take time to build leads and receive commission checks, many newbies will have to join the industry as a side gig at first.
And many do: A 2023 TravelAge West Need to Know survey found that more than one-third of travel agents work part-time.
“It is one thing to do so with the intention of building a book of business to the point that you can make it a career,” she said.
In the end, an advisor needs to look out for herself. And while she should care about her clients — and the reputation of the profession at large — perhaps there is a different message the industry should focus on to buck the trend of unprofessionalism. And that is the personal risk to the advisor, who opens herself up to scams and legal woes the minute she starts booking.
"When I started, no one was there to tell me, ‘Hey, this is a legal liability,’” Sons said. “You should not tread lightly when handling people's money and freedom to travel. This is a luxury item you are selling to people that carries legal ramifications. You should have a healthy amount of fear when you start this job without experience.”
