Honoring Veterans in Travel, Part 1: Katie MacQueen

With more than 5,000 members in its ranks, host agency Nexion Travel Group knows a thing a two about how travel advisors enter the industry. Some do the work part time, some are retired nurses, teachers or veterans leaning into a passion for travel, and helping others book it. No matter their path, Nexion meets its agents where they are and offers numerous support options to help members succeed.

One branch of the host agency’s vast web of support is its Veterans in Travel program, which debuted in 2018 and aims to help recipients gain the skills and knowledge necessary to become successful travel professionals. Just last month, Nexion awarded its 300th Veterans in Travel scholarship.

Once selected for Veterans in Travel, participants attend virtual training through the Travel Leaders of Tomorrow platform. The program includes comprehensive curriculum, expert-led lectures, study groups and business plan development guidance. Once graduated, Veterans in Travel participants can join Nexion Travel Group with no activation fee and benefit from group coaching or mentorship from a fellow veteran.

In honor of Veteran’s Day, and of Veterans in Travel hitting the 300-scholarship mark, we spoke with a few members of the program about their journey to the industry and what their business looks like today.

Editors’ Note: This is the first story in a series of three. Find the second story here and the third story here.

Meet Katie MacQueen, Owner of Better Kate Than Never Adventures

After the Sept. 11 attacks, New Jersey native Katie MacQueen headed to her local Army recruitment office to learn more about her enrollment options. After some physical preparation, she enlisted in 2002, deployed to Iraq in 2004 under Operation Iraqi Freedom and spent that year in the combat zone.

MacQueen was one of 167 women in a brigade of 4,000 — “an incredibly small” fraction, she recalls. At the time, women weren't allowed in combat arms positions, even if they wanted to be. But even as a medical technologist, MacQueen came home with post-traumatic stress disorder and fibromyalgia (a consequence of breathing toxic air from wartime burn pits). She was discharged with service-connected disability soon after she returned home in 2005.

Despite the hardships, MacQueen calls her time in Iraq “transformational.” She had hardly left her home state before enlisting, let alone the U.S. The experiences she had in Kirkuk left her in wonder.

“It's a region rich with history,” she said. “When you're there as a combatant, it can be difficult to see that, but we had a lot of interactions with locals. That was huge for me — to see how another culture lives, what their norms and mores are and how they break bread together.”

In hindsight, MacQueen can see that her time in such an ancient and storied place ignited her interest in historical sites, but she didn’t jump into the travel industry immediately. After the army, she earned a degree in chemistry with a concentration in forensic science and minored in art history. She worked as a forensic chemist for the Pennsylvania State Police for years, then pivoted to compliance work. For vacation, she’d head to Florida to play at the Disney parks. 

Then, around 2016, she started pondering a career in travel, which would marry her personal and entrepreneurial interests. She launched Better Kate Than Never Adventures in 2017, and two years later was awarded a full educational scholarship via Nexion’s Veterans in Travel program.

“Thanks to that scholarship, the only thing I paid for was books,” MacQueen said. “The ability to obtain that knowledge for less money — or in my case, no money — is a big deal. If veterans are transitioning back to civilian life, and if they're not happy in their current vocation, changing gears like that can be prohibitively expensive. The scholarship makes it more attainable. Then, being in a group of people who think the same way that we do, as veterans, is special — we're learning the same thing and we're coming from more or less the same place."

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MacQueen completed her education modules via Travel Leaders of Tomorrow and has continued to grow her business since. Perhaps more importantly, she’s found a professional community she loves.

“There's a lot that I miss about the Army, but then, a lot of those things I've actually found in the travel industry,” MacQueen said. “When you're in the army, everybody's wearing the same uniform, and just by virtue of that fact, you know you can depend on them. That's a combat necessity. In this industry — unlike any other sales industry — it’s also very collaborative. We share resources, information and contacts. We freely refer clients to each other if something isn't our expertise, to make sure that the client is taken care of."

Her specialty as a travel advisor? UNESCO World Heritage Sites. She’s keeping track of how many of these locations she’s seen herself, too (18 out of 1,223 as of now), including Rome, the city center of Salzburg, Vatican City, Venice and the Moravian Church Settlements in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

“What I love about UNESCO World Heritage Sites is that they've been designated by the United Nations as having significant cultural and historical significance to the world,” MacQueen said. “And my clients are like me — they want to get to know a culture, they want to see the sites that they've read about in books and seen on television. They want to know how the locals interact with each other and what they consider important."

MacQueen grounds client conversations in UNESCO World Heritage Sites, then recommends preferred suppliers based on related access and itinerary highlights. AmaWaterways is one of her preferred suppliers, as is Crystal Luxury Cruises and Abercrombie & Kent.

And if she ever wants professional guidance, she has plenty of mentors to lean on in her Nexion family.

“That's another parallel to the army that I found in the travel industry — I can reach out to even the big-name travel advisors and say, ‘Hey, I know that you're really good at this. Do you have any suggestions for me?’” MacQueen said. “That collaborative nature is especially present in Nexion. We're a huge host agency, so I did not expect to feel like I was in a small group. That’s a big deal.”