What Does Success Look Like for a Travel Advisor?

Success, noun: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose. 

Though its dictionary definition may seem straight forward, success is a loaded word. Everyone has a different idea of it and what it means to obtain it. 

For those in the travel industry, the meaning of success can be personal – a mix of abstract and concrete career goals and personal values. Travel Market Report spoke with travel advisors and agency owners to see what success looks like for them. We hope it inspires other advisors to think more about what their own version of success is and to strive for it. 

Aligning with Business Partner(s)

Kim Este Campbell and Meghann Minton are co-owners of Beste Travel Designs, Inc.  Among their criteria for success is that they support each other’s individual goals while remaining a cohesive brand. For others, this can look like building strong relationships with suppliers or hiring ICs or employees that align well with the agency. 

“The name of our business is Beste – it’s the combination of our two last names, and it’s a play on the word ‘besties,'” Minton told Travel Market Report. “We have this brand together, and we wanted to make sure that we’re each able to do what we love within the brand, and that will feel like success for us.”  

Growing Financially

Este Campbell also noted that making a profit is a sure sign of success – and that’s nothing to be bashful about. Plus, many people like concrete metrics to confirm they’re on the right path.

“Whether it sounds selfish or whatever, I think success means financial success,” Este Campbell said. “When I first got into this, I didn’t realize that you could really make a living being a travel advisor, but it can be very profitable. It’s shocking to me, the top producers, how much money they’re making. So that’s part of it.” 

Work-Life Balance

Other advisors focus on earning enough to make a good living and giving themselves enough time to enjoy that hard-earned income.  

“I have a good work-life balance and can travel often while still maintaining a healthy balance in my bank account,” Julia Matheson, chief travel consultant at Travel Julia’s Way, told TMR. “I stopped chasing a specific total sales goal (that elusive $1M dollar in sales that is now typical for my business) and focused on increasing transaction size and quality of client/booking. I believe in my value to my clients and am not afraid to stay firm to boundaries.”   

A Loyal, Authentic Client Base

For a travel advisor, doing the work they love often means selling trips they’re passionate about. Getting excited about the vacations they’re planning is a big part of that and often means building a list of clients who are like-minded. 

“Not only do I want people to be able to travel authentically, but I want to be able to be my own authentic self when I’m selling travel,” Minton said. “I will know I’m really successful when people come to me where I am and with what I’m able to offer, rather than what their vision of a luxury proprietor of anything should be.  

“That is when I’ll really know when I’ve made it – when I can go meet a client in my hiking boots and look a mess a little bit, and they’re still going to look at me as an authority on what it is that they want to do.” 

“Success would be that those people come back to me over and over again, that they become my book of clients,” Este-Campbell added. 

Opening Clients’ Minds and Hearts

Many say that travel is the best education. Rachel O’Brien, owner of How Far Adventures, started her business because she wanted to open people’s lives to new cultural experiences – and for them to learn, grow, and become more open-minded through them. It’s something she’s taught her kids and hopes her clients pick up on, as well. 

“A successful travel advisor, to me, means that I have opened up my clients’ eyes to a world outside of their own four walls and I have made them get outside of their comfort zone, stretch their limits, take risks that are outside of their cookie cutter, normal life,” she told TMR, “so that they go to another country, they see another way, they learn about a different culture, and then when they come home, they either adapt it a little bit in their life or they approach their regular, normal life a little differently.”