Keeping Up with the Competition or Flying Past Them?

If you’re early in your career, you’ll find that being an agent can provide you the trip of a lifetime. But it isn’t a case of just hopping onboard, it’s a journey and you have to invest in it continually. By invest, I mean grow your knowledge and grow your skills so you can enjoy the trip from beginning-to-end.

Think about it, to succeed you’ll be expected to provide guidance in such things as basic geography, destinations, climate, cruise and tour suppliers, airlines, hotels, attractions and parks, matching customers to experiences, and you should probably include the impact in global weather and politics.

But wait, there’s more! You will have to keep up with related legal issues, payment and financial processes, passport and visa requirements, developments in technology tools and software, everything necessary to manage a business, and most importantly, how to develop and strengthen relationships with your suppliers, business associates, and not least of all, your customers.

Here’s why I passionately promote continuing education, all of these critical skills need to evolve and the knowledge your job requires will change and grow over time. If you look around at successful travel agents, you’ll find that they all owe a large part of their success to their attention to continuing education.

Education can be formal or informal. Informal education includes your own personal reading, online research, coaching from colleagues and even your own travel experiences. Formal can include structured certification and degree programs from colleges, organizations like The Travel Institute, CLIA, ASTA, as well as destination and supplier seminars and webinars, and in many cases, familiarization trips. Agency groups, consortia, franchises, and host agencies often provide excellent ongoing training.

I have always taken advantage of as many educational opportunities as I could. They include college and university courses, certification programs (I’m a Certified Travel Industry Executive – CTIE), countless destination and supplier seminars and webinars, personal and work-related travel, and finally, I love to read. My reading bookshelf has two books going at the same time. One I read for pleasure and escape and the other is always a business, self-help, or travel book. That’s in addition to reading travel trade publications online and off. I also love supplementing my destination knowledge by watching travel programming on television whether it’s National Geographic, Samantha Brown, Rudy Maxa, Anthony Bourdain or Rick Steves.

Continuing Education doesn’t often sound like the most exciting thing. But consider it the foundation for your continuing success. Without it, you can’t keep up with your competition. With it, you can fly past them.

Enjoy the trip!

About the Author

Brian Robb is founder and principal at The RobbAspect. His career spanning several decades has provided him a 360-degree, and an international view of the industry having held positions at airlines, tour operators, travel agencies and in travel technology. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated a firm belief in the value of travel agents. Brian is currently board chairman of The Travel Institute providing him the opportunity to address his firm belief in the value of continuing education and in pursuing one’s passions.