Become a Travel Agent

Editorial – By Tom Ogg
You Too Can Be a Professional Travel Agent
For Only $$$$ Per Year!

Maybe it is just me, but I am more than confused by the plethora of new acronyms that I can purchase for a ton of money that will verify that I am a professional travel agent. I mean why should I have to pay someone a substantial amount of money to verify what my clients and I already know? I can join organizations like TRAP, TRUP, STUNNED and ASKEW and proudly present their logo to prove I am a professional. I don’t get it. Or, I can pay through the nose for training that I can also get for free just so I can have someone else give me their official approval. It makes no sense to me.

Of course, few (if any) of these schemes require any sort of revenue verification like a real professional travel agent would be able to show in a heartbeat. To me, it is pretty simple. You either sell travel, or you don’t. It bothers me that anyone with a few extra dollars and some time to spend taking some classes can become a “professional travel agent” without ever selling so much as a dime’s worth of travel. Don’t you, too, find that odd?

I suspect that, if the organizations offering “Professional Travel Agent” solutions actually limited it to professional travel agents that actually sold travel, it would impair their potential profitability. After all, they need to make money too, right?

Being a “professional”, by definition, implies that one possesses certain skills and adheres to a certain set of standards within their chosen field. So, being a doer rather than a complainer, here is what I propose to do: Create a non-profit (non-profit, as in no employees or overhead, at all) scenario managed by real travel agents (not for-profit organizations) to establish and implement standards for travel professionals based on defined criteria.

The only fee that should be charged and collected is a processing fee to validate the agent’s basic industry knowledge and verify their application, and that fee should be paid to an independent company with no interest in the outcome of the application. Agents should not have to pay annual fees, membership fees, buy educational services and / or products or be required to engage in continuing costs.

Agents should be required to:

1. Pass a basic test showing that they possess an essential body of knowledge to operate as an independent agent.

2. Show a minimum amount of revenue that would qualify them as a professional travel agent. This revenue should be based on gross sales corrected for dilution by commission splits paid through host agencies.

3. Show a minimum amount of professional education that is industry-wide and not given by any one organization.

4. Show a minimum amount of practical experience consistent with that of a professional travel agent.

5. Agree to a Professional Code of Ethics and execute an agreement to that affect.

6. Agents that qualify would be given a designation consistent with their position in the industry that could be used to verify their standing by those interested in such verification.

Look, it is time for professional travel agents to speak up for themselves. No one likes the idea that card mills are flourishing, that network marketers are diluting the impact of professional travel agents and that everyone and their brother can gain industry accreditations and identities without ever actually selling any travel. It is time for you to take positive action to change the environment and perfect a fair and honest way to establish credentials for professional travel agents.

If you are interested in becoming part of the solution, please e-mail me at TomOgg@aol.com.