By Redd Brown, Bloomberg News
Lisa Reich studied hard to become a forensic accountant. She worked in the field for eight years, and enjoyed interacting with her clients. But the divorce cases she often dealt with were becoming depressing.
One day, she wandered into a local travel agency looking to book a trip and got chatting — they offered her a role as an independent contractor that day.
“I’m working half the hours and making quadruple my salary,” said Reich, 42, who started her own agency in 2021 and said her annual sales have been around $3 million to $3.5 million for the past three years.
“When I was moving fields, my mother said to me ‘You’ve got a master’s in accounting, what am I going to tell the family?’” said Reich. “She’s eating her words now.”
Reich is one of a growing number of professionals who’ve left the security of jobs in finance, law and other white-collar industries to join the rapidly swelling ranks of travel advisers — a line of work that once seemed destined to disappear as travel planning moved online.
Over the past three years, the number of people describing themselves as travel agents or advisers on LinkedIn increased by more than 50%, making it the fifth-fastest growing profession over that time.
For now, the demand is there, too. Travel booked through advisers — which includes accommodation, flights and activities — is expected to hit $141.3 billion next year in the U.S., equal to 26% of the total market, the American Society of Travel Advisors estimates.
“Curation and support are the main selling points,” that distinguish in-person advice from online services or AI booking options, said Eric Hrubant, founder of New York City-based CIRE Travel, in an interview. Hrubant, 48, said he gets about three emails each week from people asking what it’s like to be a travel agent, and whether there are entry-level jobs available at CIRE.
“I’m thinking about developing my own coaching business,” he joked.
Hrubant said some of his ultra-high net worth clients easily spend in excess of six figures on personal travel annually, while the average couple he books for spends around $40,000 per year on two weeklong vacations.
For Amira Bixby, 58, the catalyst for switching careers came during the pandemic. After almost three decades on Wall Street as an equity sales trader, Bixby realized while working from home that it was the first time in years that she’d been in the house when her children woke up. When her employer called everyone back into the office five days a week, she knew it was time to make a change.
Travel was an obvious choice. “I was a luxury travel adviser before I was a luxury travel adviser,” said Bixby, who said she would regularly help friends and clients plan trips, and organized for her daughter’s travel lacrosse team to stay at a Four Seasons hotel each season.
She values her newfound flexibility above everything else.
“When you can work from anywhere your life changes drastically for the better,” she said. “My son just graduated from UVA and you can imagine all the parties. I was in UVA four out of six weekends. Before that, I was skiing in the Dolomites,” the mountain range in Italy.
Almost anyone can set themselves up as a travel adviser, though some U.S. states do require agents to register and apply for accreditation. Many new agents will take online courses to boost their credentials, and can join established travel networks to get access to insider deals at top hotels, airlines and tour operators.
While some agents charge a fee, the majority of their earnings come through commissions from hotels or tour operators on services booked for customers. Commissions can fluctuate depending on the service, but for some of the biggest brands advisers usually get around 10% of the value of the booking.
The amount that vacationers spend with travel agents also varies widely by agency. A survey of ASTA advisers from 2024 found that the biggest proportion of clients spent between $100 and $400 per person, per night with their travel planners. At those rates, a weeklong trip for a couple would range from $1,400 to $5,600.
Lisa Tucker, a law professor in Philadelphia, started working with a travel agent about a year ago to plan vacations for her and her four children. In April, a getaway to Rome was disrupted by an overzealous party in the boutique hotel where they were staying, and the front desk insisted no other rooms were available. Then her travel agent intervened.
“He made one phone call and suddenly they moved us into the presidential suite,” Tucker, 57, said.
Not everyone who makes the switch to a career in travel planning increases their earnings — at least not at first. Julia Flood, a former litigation lawyer in Toronto, knew she’d be making less when she stepped away from her job to become a travel agent. The flexibility and freedom she gained from the switch were worth it.
“I don’t necessarily work fewer hours,” Flood, 34, said. “I do what I want and where I want — I might be booking someone’s trip while I’m sitting in a café in the South of France.”
Booming growth across the travel industry means that companies like Expedia Group Inc. and Booking Holdings Inc., which are integrating artificial intelligence into their online booking services, have avoided any notable financial impact from the revival in travel advisers. This year, travel is forecast to contribute $11.7 trillion to the global economy, accounting for 10.3% of total output, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. By the end of the decade, that figure is expected to climb to $16.5 trillion.
At the same time, new agencies are making the most of the resurgent interest in travel careers. Fora Travel Inc. was founded in 2021 to give wannabe travel advisers easy access to training and technology, as well as a network of mentors and events. In April it announced it had raised $60 million in a Series B and C fundraising, led by Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital and Insight Partners.
Co-founder Henley Vazquez said about 97% of the company’s agents are new to the travel industry, and 86% are women — many of them parents who appreciate the flexibility of the job. For some recent entrants, it doesn’t take long to start making decent money.
“In the past three years, we’ve had 35 advisers who have hit $1 million in sales in their first year joining,” Vazquez said in an interview.
Flood was introduced to Vazquez through a mutual friend in 2021. At the time, she was still working as a lawyer but feeling increasingly disillusioned with her job. She knew she wanted to do something linked to travel, and Vazquez was just getting Fora off the ground. What did she have to lose, her new friend asked.
“I didn’t have a mortgage, I didn’t have children, I don’t have any of those things that affect your thought process when making a big financial decision,” Flood said. “So it was a great time in my life to make that transition and to make the leap and, of course, I’ve never looked back.”
For Bixby, coming from a business background — especially one involving close client relationships and money management in New York’s lucrative finance industry — has been a boon. The first three trips she planned were for a former coworker, a mutual fund client and a close friend. Recently, a hedge fund manager she’d worked with called her up to help him plan a vacation.
“They know I will protect their investment, and it’s not just money, it’s time,” she said.
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