These Are Travel Agencies’ Biggest Concerns Heading into 2026

Outbound travel from the United States is hitting record levels – but with more business comes more concerns about safeguarding the industry. 

That was the idea driving a recent conversation among industry leaders at the National Press Club on Oct. 6, when the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) convened the panel, “What Hurdles Does the Travel Industry Face?” as part of its annual Travel Industry Forecast in Washington, D.C. 

Zane Kerby, ASTA’s president and CEO, led with some encouraging figures: Nearly 12 million Americans traveled abroad in June 2025, which is up 10% from last year. In fact, it has been up year-over-year practically every month in 2025. 

“Despite tariffs and political posturing, which can have a negative effect on how Americans feel like they’re going to be welcomed abroad, every month since tariffs were announced in February, outbound travel has increased from 2024 levels,” Kerby said. 

Overall, outbound travel has surpassed pre-pandemic numbers, with 107 million Americans traveling in 2024, compared to 90 million in 2019. While all that is exciting to hear and solidifies the travel industry’s resilience, modern times also bring more challenges to the industry. 

From maintaining professionalism to combatting sensational news, here are five of the biggest issues facing agencies:

Professionalism and Education 

The problem: As visibility for the travel advisor profession increases, so do scams and illegitimate actors that muddy the water when consumers are looking for an advisor. Nicole Mazza, CMO of TRAVELSAVERS, said maintaining professionalism and keeping up on education are two of her biggest concerns in the current landscape. 

“We need to make sure that those coming into our industry are good ambassadors for our industry,” she said, adding that she would like to see a “higher bar of entry into our industry.” 

Kerby also said that, now with travel booming, “it’s no wonder that people are leaving their current ho-hum professions and joining the ranks of travel advisors.” Kerby still warned that, “a shiny TikTok with a young pouting influencer showing off her version of paradise, or the ability to make a flashy Instagram post, does not a travel advisor make.”   

Amanda Klimak, president and co-owner of Largay Travel, gave the example of gimmicky social media posts advertising things like “be an agent in 24 hours, pay $29.95, I lie on the beach, and I do email for an hour.” 

“We know that’s not reality, but a lot of people don’t realize, so they pay the money,” she said, “and what we’re seeing now is an influx of people who thought they were becoming travel advisors who really weren’t. They see the issues that are starting to rise.” 

“Our industry has progressed and evolved so much over the past 35-plus years,” Tiffany Hines, president and CEO of Global Escapes, added. “It’s exciting to see, but it is frustrating at times to see people think it’s just so easy, and it’s not. It is complex and it does take a lot of patience and customer service, first and foremost.”   

The solution: ASTA’s new Verified Travel Advisor (VTA) program has been helping drive consumers to respectable travel advisors through the VeriVacation website. In addition, most host agencies have reputable, months-long training and mentorship programs that teach everything from logistics to customer service to ethics of selling travel. 

Joshua Harrell, CRO of WorldVia, noted that training programs should also be fun, and that mentorship should be personalized and teach entrepreneurship.  

“You have to be motivated and really tie into: ‘Why are you doing this, and what is your story going to be?'” he said, “and find who are going to be the mentors and educators who are going to get you where you want to be.” 

Ongoing communication with clients about potential scams also helps to keep travel advisors above the fray and well-trusted, so the public knows how to differentiate the professionals from bad actors. 

News Headlines and Misinformation 

The problem: There’s a lot going on in the world today, and almost all of it impacts travel, from weather events to geopolitical issues. This makes for worried clients and an uncertain market. 

“You have clients that there may be an issue today, and they’re not traveling for six months, and right away, they want to call and cancel,” said Marc Kazlaukas, CEO of Avoya. “The anxiety is worse than the reality.”   

The solution: Empathy is key to dealing with situations like this, the panelists all agreed. Being understanding with clients and explaining the facts to them will go a long way. Host agencies can do the same with clear communication about world events to all their agents, especially new ones, who can also tap into the knowledge of advisors who have more longevity in the industry and have lived through changes in the market. 

Qualifying New Clients 

The problem: Not all clients understand the true value of their travel advisor (this all goes back to building the profession’s reputation and fighting any misconceptions about it), making it difficult for some advisors to identify the right clients to work with and feel comfortable charging a fee for their services. 

The solution: Advisors need to be their own advocates and set clients’ expectations for what their services will be. Advisors should recognize when a client is not going to be receptive to that and move along. Then, they’ll have time to “play the long game” to build long-term relationships with the right clients, Hines said. 

“It’s our job to explain how we work, what we do for them, and educate them a little bit. We feel like if we invest a little bit of [time for that] in the beginning, we’re going for a long-term relationship,” she said. “We want to be their trusted advisor for years to come, so if we have solidified that trust, and then we continue to do that time and time again, they’re not going to question what you charge.” 

Commission Payments 

The problem: Booking travel requires mastery of many different online platforms, and after all that work, it’s important to get paid. Unfortunately, the payment doesn’t always appear. 

“To book any travel, you’ve got 80 tabs open, and every system is working very differently,” Harrell said, in reference to “antiquated technology systems [with] not a lot of integration.” 

Chief among those technological problems – which many times aren’t technological at all but rather a failing of the suppliers – is commission payments. They don’t always come in a timely manner, if at all, and travel advisors want that to change. 

The solution: ASTA’s brand-new website includes a place for advisors to report commission concerns. If the issues aren’t resolved, ASTA has launched a blacklist of late and no-pay suppliers, mainly hoteliers, so advisors know who they may run into challenges working with. Opening honest dialogue, such as some agencies have now done with Onyx, can also push the needle forward on the issue. 

“We discovered Onyx has a willingness to talk to us, which is something we did not have before,” Klimak said. “We were impressed that we had someone newer to the company explain to us how that system works so that we can understand and now we’re digging into the root causes.” 

Adapting to AI 

The problem: The conversation around AI has quickly shifted from whether it will replace travel advisors to whether travel advisors will be able to keep up with the new technology. The consensus is that, no, AI cannot replace the personalization that advisors bring to the table; however, it can pose a problem for advisors who reject it completely or don’t use it properly. 

“Advisors that are not understanding how to use AI, that are not embracing it as an opportunity within the operations of their business, are going to fall a little bit further behind because they are not going to be able to keep up with the demand that is there that you want to bring through the door,” Mazza said. 

The solution: To make sure they don’t get left behind, advisors must first research all the different kinds of tools that are out there – and there are many. From checking email to creating social posts, AI platforms can do a lot for you if you take the time to feed it the right, unique information. 

“You can get three to four hours back in your day if you use these tools properly,” Mazza said. 

But travel advisors, beware: So much AI-generated content is littering social media nowadays, and travel advisors better use it cleverly by inserting their own personal flair. 

“There’s a lot of noise in the marketplace today, and if you really in tune to what’s happening out there, a lot of it sounds the same, Mazza said. “How do you make yours better? How do you use AI to build your brand and your voice?” 

For example, at Largay Travel, advisors are using Google’s Notebook LM to create podcasts for their clients about their trip. “We’re becoming really creative in the ways that we’re using it in ways [clients] wouldn’t even think of,” Klimak said. 

Eric Maryanov, president and CEO of All Travel and ASTA’s Board Vice Chair, summed the conversation up well: 

“At the end of the day, I don’t think the travelers are looking for another booking engine. What they want is experience, they want reassurance, and they want that human connection,” he said. “If we can keep those front and center, we’ll not only survive the headwinds that only become stronger, we’ll be more indispensable than ever.”