Not Enough New Agents: Travel Groups Respond

This is the first of two stories on travel schools run by travel agent groups

Working from a consensus that there simply aren’t enough people—young people especially—who are interested in a travel agent career, several travel agent groups are taking matters into their own hands.

Travel agencies, travel management companies and travel franchise groups are becoming increasingly proactive by making substantial investments in their own travel schools.

The goal, of course, is to provide a pool of new agents to draw from over the next few years.

The collection of new or recently-opened schools includes Travel Leaders of Tomorrow and Travel Leaders Academy, both from Travel Leaders Group; Ovation Travel Group’s Ovation Academy, and Travel and Transport’s Travel Academy.

Meanwhile older schools like Conlin-Hallissey Travel School from Conlin Travel are expanding their efforts. The agency has three offices in Michigan and one in San Francisco.

Not ‘on the radar’
Conlin-Hallissey Travel has been around since 1983 but, according to Chris Conlin, president of Conlin Travel, ”There have not been a lot of new people coming into the business, at least on the corporate travel side.”

“We have been fortunate to find experienced agents after other agencies consolidated or went out of business, but those days of consolidation are almost over and it’s difficult to find fully-trained and experienced corporate agents,” he said.

The agency industry has to move on its own in the education effort because, “it’s not being done at universities or colleges,” according to Conlin.

“When I interview people who come out of tourism and hospitality programs, they tell me that the travel management or travel agency option is barely mentioned; it is hardly on the radar.”

Difficult finding talent

Heather Kindred, program director for the Travel Leaders Group’s Travel Leaders of Tomorrow online educational initiative, said, “Our leadership saw an opportunity to create something unique and to be part of the solution. We are not seeing a lot of people coming out of brick and mortar travel schools.”

Gloria Stock Mickelson, director of education services for Travel Leaders Franchise Group, said that the Travel Leaders Academy, a different classroom-based effort, is “an opportunity for our franchisee owners to have a school within their own community.”

But Mickelson added, “We look at the whole network of travel. Depending on where they are, graduates could work for tour operators or hotels.”

“Our owners know their communities well and know the people who work in those affiliated industries locally.”

At Travel and Transport, leaders consider “developing millennial staff as a key to the company’s success both internally and externally,” according to Jim Winterscheid, vice president, human resources.

However, “It’s become harder and harder to find agents with each passing year,” Winterscheid said.

Teaching professional skills
The schools themselves generally develop the curricula aimed at teaching students the skills necessary to become professional travel agents.

For instance, the Conlin-Hallissey Travel School program offers these units: orientation to the travel industry, geography, domestic air, hotels and surface transportation, customer service and sales skills, fare construction and ticketing, international travel, cruises and tours, professional development, and computer reservation system training.

Ovation Travel’s Ovation Academy offers courses in customer service, geography and the travel industry, sales skills, and corporate protocols and Sabre (which provides training in travel management software administered through the Sabre Travel Network).

At Travel and Transport’s Travel Academy, students are introduced to the industry through soft skills like geography, reservations processes and operations. Students also engage in the practical application of skills learned throughout the program.

Said Mickelson of the classroom-based Travel Leaders Academy: “Our curricula has worked out well. We built an experiential program where people learn the system we use in this industry in a hands-on way.”

“That’s why we need computerized classrooms where they can learn GDS and online booking tools. They also practice with lots of case studies,” she said.

The Travel Leaders Group’s online Travel Leaders of Tomorrow, includes a wide range of instruction styles including reading and writing assignments, a “fun” and interactive online learning portal with interactive curricula and recorded webinars.

Virtual versus classroom
While Conlin-Hallisey has been online-only in recent years, Conlin said, “We are considering reopening our classroom program [it was discontinued a number of years ago] and we may do that in 2016.”

“We just sense there is a demand and my peers have been asking about our school,” he said. Students at Conlin-Hallisey can start their programs whenever it’s convenient to them.

Conlin did start an intensive on-the-job training program with a group of new hires in May (see sidebar). However, the agency plans to continue its online offerings.

Travel Leaders Group has both virtual and classroom options, the first a corporate initiative and the second designed for franchisees.

Travel Leaders of Tomorrow, in its third year, receives about 100 inquiries a month for its four-module virtual program designed to attract talent as a whole but also for the group’s 6,000 plus wholly-owned, franchised and member travel agencies.

Meanwhile, Travel Leaders’ Travel Leaders Academy is designed for franchisees who can train students in their own offices or another space.

More personal
Students can start the Travel Leaders of Tomorrow anytime.

“We didn’t want another mass online course, but something more personal where we could engage with people,” said Kindred. “So we created a virtual campus program where we combine the online training with study groups led by live instructors.

The sessions are recorded for viewing later. In addition, there is a discussion forum where questions are posed weekly to a group so there are ten to 15 people speaking only to each other.

“Pure online programs don’t work,” according to Kindred. “I have been teaching agents a big part of my professional life and I know we needed to generate engagement.

“While students can move at their own pace we encourage them to keep going; we call that ‘self-deadlines.’”

Although the program is virtual, Travel Leaders of Tomorrow has a dedicated phone number and email box in case students have questions.

Mickelson said the first two sessions of the Travel Leaders Academy program were held in franchisee offices but could be held in other venues.

The states in which the programs are held must approve the curricula. Students can complete their courses either through a full-time day time program or a three evening-a-week program.

Next time: Recruiting students