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Gifted Travel Network is pleased to announce that 12 of its own will attend International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) North America in Rivera Maya, Mexico.

By Christine Brown of Vacation Inspirations

Please don’t get me wrong, I am sure you have lovely friends and your family is fantastic! But for most people, just booking travel for their family and friends isn’t enough to sustain a successful business. A hobby, yes; but not a business. So, while you are certainly going to start out marketing yourself as a travel agent to those who know and love you, you have to go further.

Are you ready to live the laptop lifestyle? You can do that in the travel industry.

It’s a sad truth: the love of travel does not equate to success in the travel industry. Just being passionate about traveling does not mean that you are going to have a successful travel business. A hobby maybe, but not anything that will allow you to live the laptop lifestyle so many people want. Hobbyists in the travel industry are plentiful. They do sell travel and make some money, but not enough to make it a full-time job that will support them. Bottom line: If you aren’t selling at least $100,000 in travel each year, you’re a hobbyist.

There is one, big, wrong reason to become a travel agent that continues to get included in so many recent articles about this subject, that I decided it was time to write an article on the right reasons to become a travel agent. The number 1 wrong reason to become a travel agent is to feed your insatiable hunger for travel for less money because you think you will get free travel.

When you become a travel agent you will be both a travel agent AND a business owner.  You will wear many hats! Let’s see, there’s marketing manager, client services manager, book keeper, errand runner, sales person, and the list goes on.

When you first become a travel agent, whether you work from home or in an office, having a consortium that aligns with your business’ objectives is incredibly important and powerful. But I realize how confusing it all can be because one of your first steps is to find the right host agency or franchise. Now, I’m telling you to find the right consortium too?

I was selected out of a pool of other travel industry applicants to go on U by Uniworld’s first launch river cruise. I submitted a 30 second video explaining why U by Uniworld should pick me to experience this first river cruise adventure. At Gifted Travel Network, we work with over 230 travel agents from all over the country. I knew many of our agents were curious about U by Uniworld and would want feedback on this new product so they can sell to their 21-45 year old clients. I thought, why not take one for the team, and volunteer to go on behalf of our GTN agents so I can report back about my experience onboard the new ship, The B.  I graciously volunteered my time to vacation—I mean document my travels for our agents – and this is how it went…

There is one, big, wrong reason to become a travel agent that continues to get included in recent articles about this subject, that I decided it was time to write an article on the right reasons to become a travel agent. The number 1 wrong reason to become a travel agent is to feed your insatiable hunger for travel for less money because you think you will get free travel.