The Second Time Around: Choosing Travel as A Second Career

This is the first of two stories on travel agents who chose travel as a second career

These days when many people seek to re-invent themselves, travel has often proved to be an excellent second career.

It not only features the type of organizational skills that second-career agents have developed in their earlier jobs, it also provides an opportunity for those with an entrepreneurial spirit to thrive.

Although they come to the industry from a wide variety of backgrounds, these ‘new’ travel agents inevitably share two things – a love of travel and a desire for a change of pace.

Travel Market Report talked to several agents about why they decided on a career in travel and how they made a success of that choice.

From sales manager to managing travel
Inspired by his travel agent sister, Ron Beeman of Stockton, Calif.-based Beeman Travel, a Montrose Travel agency and an Ensemble affiliate, turned to the industry after 32 years with GlaxoSmithKline, where he worked as military sales manager.

During his career he traveled to Germany and Japan, adding time onto business trips to explore other countries.

Beeman believed his sales experience would be the key to his success as a travel agent.

“The No. 1 thing is meeting customer needs and that I learned in my previous career,” Beeman said. “One of the biggest mistakes I made in this business, however, is that I didn’t properly qualify my customers right up front. That was a huge mistake.

“I would spend way too much time trying to provide them a variety of products to look at rather than targeting them with particular products.”

From lawyer to smooth sailing
After 35 years of practicing law – everything from criminal prosecutor and public defender to civil trial lawyer – Doug Crosby, co-owner of Holiday Cruises and Tours, a Signature travel agency in Las Vegas, Nev., had had enough.

In 2003 he decided to help manage the travel agency business that he had opened ten years before with two partners.

Crosby and his wife had subsequently bought out those partners, and his wife had been managing the agency. From the beginning, he knew they would be successful.

“There was no real cruise agency in Las Vegas then, and cruising was something that I was extremely interested in,” said Crosby. “I love ships and being on the ocean.

“By the time we got involved we had been on three or four cruises and I saw the need for Las Vegas to have an agency specializing in them.”

As the luxury cruise lines began to develop, Crosby was convinced there would be a lot of people among his many legal career contacts who would appreciate high-end cruising. Today Crystal is his number one selling cruise line.

Crosby credits his success to the fact that when he began there weren’t any Las Vegas agencies focusing on “upper-end travel” with personalized service.

From banking to kosher safaris
Deborah Deming of Frosch Classic Cruise & Travel, a Signature agency in Woodland Hills, Calif., chose travel at a younger age.

When she was about to turn 30 more than two decades ago, Deming decided to leave her career in banking and property management.

Because both of her parents were born in Europe, Deming had traveled extensively as a child. She took her first trip abroad at age four and her first cruise in 1969.

Although it required a leap of faith – Deming started selling cruises on a commission–only basis—she was convinced from the start that she would succeed.

And succeed she did.

It took her only a year before she was making a decent living in travel, and now she has so many repeat clients that her entire business is built on referrals.

A specialty for Deming, who is a “nice Jewish girl and lives in an observant home”: kosher cruises and kosher safaris for clients from Mexico City and Central America.

“What surprised me the most was the lack of the professionalism in the industry,” Deming recalled of her initial foray into travel. “There was a lot of money to made and a lot of people in the business only dabbled in it.

“When I started I was 15 years younger than most of the people I worked with,’ she added. “The more I watched them dabble, the more I realized that I could be successful. Agents had a horrible reputation within our industry at the time.”

From the design business to the business of travel
Jade Chiarini of CTA Travel in Cerritos, Calif., also made the change to travel at a young age, 30, but did it only three years ago.

She had worked in Chiarini Marble & Stone, a business started by her grandfather, father and uncle, since she was 15 and wanted to strike out on her own.

Chiarini was convinced her experience working with European contacts in the marble and stone design business as well as her own extensive travels, would give her a head start.

The nature of her family’s business also taught her how to deal with upscale clients.

“My family’s business was all luxury, so I had an understanding of the luxury market and the clientele and what they’re looking for,” Chiarini said.

“That prepared me for what the luxury traveler would want. I also have a minor in psychology which helps.”

Chiarini specializes in honeymoons and family travel, which as a mom with a seven-year and nine-year-old is a natural.

Her approach: Begin working with honeymoon clients and grow her business with them as they become a family.

Although similar in some ways to her former career, there are differences in the travel industry.

“In interior design, you create the atmosphere that people live in every day but you’re not creating the memories,” said Chiarini.

“In travel, you’re helping a family or a traveler create memories that they’ll have for a lifetime.  Travel changes people’s lives, and to be part of that with someone is an amazing experience.”

Next time: Breaking into the travel agent business