A Travel Agent plans and sells transportation and accommodations for travel agency customers. The Travel Agent determines destination, modes of transportation, travel dates, costs and accommodations required.
Primary Responsibilities:
- The Travel Agent Plans a vacation for couples and families.
- The Travel Agent books the vacation making sure that all reservations are set for the appropriate time and places.
- The Travel Agent takes care of the clerical work behind vacations, arranging payment, tickets and reservations.
- The Travel Agent provides the customer with the itinerary, tickets, and brochures.
- Most travel agencies have a training program in which they will train the travel agent. Usually a high school diploma and some Community Education classes are all that is needed in order to become a Travel Agent.
A good Travel Agent must have clerical skills and the capability of using the computer. The Travel Agent will need to be able to do research work finding the best place for vacation according to the customer’s wishes with the best prices in hotels, airfare, and restaurants. Also the Travel Agent needs to be able to find places of interest for the customers while they are on their vacation. A family for instance may want to go to a place like Disney World while a couple on their honeymoon may want to go to an Island where there are lots of beaches and sand.
The Travel Agent must be able to provide the customer with good personal service which includes assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction. The Travel Agent must be able to describe the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal and human life.
The Travel Agent must have the ability to use good marketing strategy in promoting and selling products or services. One of the common things that a Travel Agent must possess is the ability to sell modes of transportation. Flying is a common method to travel but many people like to go on a cruise using a ship or perhaps they would prefer to go across country by Amtrak. Then of course there are those who like to travel by motor home stopping along the way to visit certain sites. Whatever mode of transportation selected the Travel Agent needs the capability to map out the whole trip including site seeing tours, rest stops, and other areas of interest.
A Travel Agent must also possess good clerical skills full knowledge of administrative procedures and computer techniques such as word process, managing files, and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms and other office procedures and terminology. This is where some courses at your local Community College can be a great help to becoming a successful Travel Agent. You need to give full attention to what other people are saying, taking the time to understand the points being made, and making notes of specific requests. The Travel Agent should know when to ask questions but not interrupting at inappropriate times. A good Travel Agent is very service orientated that is actively looking for ways to help people have an enjoyable vacation that is not too expensive.
The Travel Agent works directly with the public therefore must have the capability to understand the speech of another person. Even though the person is speaking your language it maybe with a different accent or with some sort of different sounds unfamiliar to your ears. You must have the ability to listen and understand what people are saying. You should also be able to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. The Travel Agent needs the ability to see details at close range recognize when there is a possibility that something might go wrong and solve the problem if possible before it happens. Also the Travel Agent needs the ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules. The Travel Agent needs good math skills able to add, subtract, divide or multiply quickly and correctly. The ability to convince others to buy merchandise, goods, trips, tickets, and other travel related items. Also the Travel Agent must be able to convince others to change their mind when it is necessary because of perhaps a possible problem with the destination or the pricing is too high.