It’s 2022 and I Can’t Believe that Tourism and Hospitality Brands are Still Training Travel Agents This Way

Over the past 2 years, I have tuned into numerous promotional webinars geared for travel agents and have attended several travel-related events that discuss innovation in the future of travel and guess what…

Things are still being done the exact same way as before.

Answer me this: If an industry was flipped upside down and a whole new set of values and pain points exist for its consumers over a 2-year span, should we be marketing and serving those consumers in the same exact way as before?

Let me help you… the answer is no.         

This is why I don’t understand why tourism and hospitality companies are “training” travel agents or providing promotional and educational resources to help with their sales strategies in the same manner as before.

As if the reasons why people travel, where they go, how long they go for, what they look for, what they value, what they need, what kind of experiences they desire, how they spend their money, and how they spend the time, haven’t changed.

Because it all has.

For an industry like tourism and hospitality that has billions of dollars dumped into innovation and marketing every year to be so far behind in giving people what they truly want AND for an industry that has the foundation of people (human beings) to not touch on people’s emotions and motivating factors for a travel experience, is beyond me.

In today’s world of travel agent portals and webinars, I hear and see cruise lines, hotels, and destinations spend the majority of their time touching on things like pools, amenities, spas, gyms, comfy beds, room size, square footage, types of restaurants available, transportation logistics, and generic tourism attractions like museums and amusement parks.

When instead, they should be training travel agents on how to touch on potential client’s human emotions and their underlying desire for wanting (or needing) to go on a trip based on what that brand has to offer.

People make purchasing decisions based on their emotions.  How they feel. People seek a feeling, a result, an outcome, or a transformation of some sort.

This is what the industry is lacking.

Travelers don’t go somewhere because they want an experience. They go somewhere because they seek fulfillment, human connection, soul-searching, answers, inspiration, quality time building bonds with loved ones, a change of routine, to find their passions or purpose in life, to get a mental break from work, to feel better, and far more meaningful reasons for traveling.

This is all based on research that I have conducted for over a decade.

The problem is that tourism and hospitality brands haven’t identified what it is that they are actually selling and providing people with because it is NOT an experience. That’s the overall process from point A to point Z, pre and post trip.

Until companies can figure that out, travel agents will continue to struggle to sell their destination, property, or “experience” as they sink deeper into the hole of the overly-saturated and surface-leveled approach to selling travel.

It’s 2022.  It’s time to reshape how and why people travel.

Adding Coaching to your Travel Business

 The term Travel Coaching is fairly new but the concept of coaching has been around for decades.

According to a chapter in Coaching in Islamic Culture, it reports that (quote) “between the 1940s and 1960s, some organisations provided their senior executives with counselling, delivered by occupational or organisational psychologists. These interventions were designed to support the executives to overcome barriers and excel at their work.” (end quote).

The chapter goes on to say (quote) “The modern incarnation of coaching can trace its roots back to the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s, a decade of exploration in human growth and development. “ (end quote).

Over the past decades, we saw tremendous growth in the coaching industry ranging in wellness coaching, life coaching, health coaching, spiritual coaching, parental coaching, business coaching, and more.

All of these forms of coaching are  (quote) “The art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives” (end quote)- says thought-leader Roskinski.

That growth is what inspired me to become a travel coach- not because I saw it plastered all over the place (granted when I started my travel coaching business, it was almost 5 years ago and wasn’t as spoken about as it is now)- but I knew that my path as a travel coach was what I wanted because I wanted to empower and help others to use the power of travel to help them in their own wellbeing, personal life, and work-life, like travel did for me.

I have seen an uptick in coaches in a wide range of niches, from health and wellness to life to and transformational coaches, and more, come into the travel coach network (and outside of the TCN)- combine their love, knowledge, and passion for travel with their interests, background, and expertise in another coaching field.

But what about if you don’t have a coaching background or experience?

What if you are a travel agent or a travel advisor, or a travel manager, or a tour operator, or some other role involving tourism and hospitality?

Or what about if you come from the medical industry? Maybe you are a doctor, therapist, or a pharmacist? – I’ve seen a big growth in this area as well combining their expertise with travel.

The question is, how do you combine coaching with your current travel or wellness business?

It’s about asking the right kind of questions.

It’s about getting to know your traveler (aka client’s) personal wants, needs, fears, goals, desires, concerns, and more.

It’s about connecting with them on a human level and having open communication and effective listening skills

It’s about creating a safe space for them to talk about where their desire for a trip comes from- I call this their motivating factors for travel. Lazlo at HTWW

WHY do they want to go somewhere? What does a sense of freedom mean to them? What does wellness mean to them?

What kind of outcome, solution, transformation, changes, or feelings are they in search of?

Why do they want to escape?

What sets their inner soul on fire?

Why does meeting new people, having new experiences, seeing new things, learning about new cultures, and all of those other reasons why people truly travel really mean to them?

No longer is travel solely about the transaction between an agent and a client.

No longer is travel solely about the cold hard facts of an itinerary

No longer is wellness travel separate from travel overall

Because wellness IS travel and travel IS wellness

The TCCP and the TCN community are the places that you will want to be to learn more about how you can combine your coaching with your current travel or wellness business.

Or maybe you’re in a whole other space and you want to combine it with your love of travel.

It’s my goal to make you think. To push you to get creative. To think outside of your box and the boxes that the travel industry has built around travel careers for years.

I encourage you to do more. Think bigger. And go bigger.

I encourage you to take that leap and that risk and create the business of your dreams. 

Hear more about Travel Coaching and the Travel Coach Certification Program on the TCN Podcast!

What is a travel coach and how is it different from a travel agent?

 

When you hear the term “Travel Coach”, you may initially think it means a “Travel Agent”.  I can completely understand why. Travel coaching is a newer concept. When I started my wellness travel coaching business over 4 years ago, there was little to no one talking about it.  That doesn’t mean that no one was doing it though.  I have countless people throughout the years who have said that they have been a travel coach for years or that they were doing it but just didn’t know what it could be called.

 

Since travel coaching has grown tremendously in the past few years, especially after the pandemic has shined a bright light on the value that travel has on our personal and work life, I have come to learn that there are several definitions of what a travel coach is or does.

 

Some of the definitions that I have heard are people who coach travel agents or simply, someone who still just plans and books trips.

 

But that’s not what a travel coach means in the TCN.

 

A Travel Coach and a Travel Agent are two very different careers within the travel industry.

 

Let’s start with a travel agent.  Pretty much everyone is familiar with the term “travel agent”.  When you think of a travel agent, you think of going on a vacation and sipping pina coladas on a beach on a Caribbean island for a week then returning home and back to your usual daily routine.

 

When you hire and pay for a travel agent to book a trip for you, you are letting them do everything for you including the research, booking of flights and accommodations, and more.  You are depending on their research, knowledge, and work to (hopefully) provide you with a marvelous trip.  You will most likely pay a pretty penny for hiring the travel agent which may refrain you from traveling as often as you may like.  In addition, once you return from your trip that the travel agent booked, you are left in the same position on the lack of knowledge on booking your own travels so you may resort to hiring and paying for another travel agent because you just aren't sure on where to go, how to find deals, or anything else that you leave up to the travel agent to do for you.

 

Travel agent work is traditionally transactional. I know that that has been changing over the years with travel agents changing their names to travel advisors, which is what the American Society of Travel Agents changed to.

 

You also hear about travel designers, travel consultants, travel concierge, travel counsellors, and more.

 

But their main goal is still to plan itineraries, ease the process of a trip, and deal with the bookings.

 

With this evolution of the term travel agent, it goes to show the changing needs and desires of the traveler. They are looking for more control, more of a purpose, reaching certain goals, truly personal and unique experiences that change them in some way, a transformation, certain outcomes and feelings, and more.

 

Travel professionals must be able to provide tools and guidance at each stage of the traveler journey while adding a human-centric approach

 

 

bonnie smith, GM at FCM Travel Solutions South Africa – (quote) “Travellers will demand more from their travel agency. Forget transactional booking agents, travel management companies that are able to support their clients at every stage of the traveller journey, providing them with all the information and resources they need, will have a distinct advantage in the future.” (end quote)

 

She goes on to say:

 

(quote) "Soft skills like empathy, communication and the ability to listen are more important than ever," says Smith. "Travel agents need to be engaged and responsive (especially when things go wrong), and willing to go the extra mile. Grit, adaptability, flexibility – the list goes on. The travel agent of the future is an expert, a specialist, a therapist and someone to lean on." (end quote)

 

You must consider the entire journey.

 

Amadeus- (quote) “Travel consultants now need to act as ‘personal travel assistants’ who are partially data scientists, partially lifestyle gurus and who move away from providing information to offering personalized guidance.” (end quote)

 

The industry as a whole is recognizing this need for change in how the travel experience is done.

Travel coaching is all about helping people set intentions for their trip. It is about putting control back into the hands of the traveler.  A travel coach inspires, empowers, educate, supports, and guides you on the best and most effective travel information and how to use that information, resources, and tools to not only travel more often but also how to use the power of travel to help you as a person, your life direction, and your career path.

 

Because every traveler is unique and knows and loves something different about travel, that makes travel coaches and their areas of focus vast and personal.

 

Travel coaching is about helping people make less excuses about not taking that trip, it’s about helping people suffering from trauma use travel to heal, it’s about empowering people to learn how to plan and book travel on their own terms and budget, it’s about helping to stop those limiting beliefs or those mindset barriers, it’s about getting to the roots of WHY someone truly wants or needs an escape and using that travel experience to help them transform their life and reach their goals.

 

Travel coaching is what YOU as the travel expert want to make out of it because the sky is the limit on what is possible, who you can, and how you can make a difference in the lives of others through the power of travel. 

 

Hear more from the TCN founder Sahara Rose, on the TCN Podcast! 

 

 

Ways to Find your Niche in Today’s Travel industry

 For so long, travel careers meant that you had to choose your niche.

“Niche” is a term used to simplify what you as the travel expert specialize in.  How travel experts are used to choosing their niche is based on the client’s age or income level, the category of travel such as luxury, family, or cruises, a specific destination, or even a brand like Disney or Sandals.

Or travel experts have chosen what they are told are lucrative, possible, or desirable and could easily make sales.

But can we really group a demographic, brand, or a destination into 1 or 2 types of clientele? 

Well obviously, We could before but not anymore.

Today’s traveler comes in all genders, ages, stages of life, personal goals, work-life, lifestyles, needs, objections, dreams, income levels, generations, and more.

So why is the travel industry still using the traditional way of “choosing a niche” and thinking it applies to how, why, and who travels in the post pandemic world?

Answer is, Because it’s an industry that tends to do what was proven to work in the past.

How could they think that this approach and strategy are going to help travel professionals stand out in the new age of travel?

Because it won’t.

There has been a lack of depth in the travel industry with the experiences that are provided. I’ve asked countless travel professionals what they help people with and I hear things like: take the stress of travel planning off of their back, give them memorable experiences, customize trips for them, have trips of a lifetime, and more.

If you took a crowd of travelers and asked questions like:

Who likes going off of the beaten path?

Who enjoys traveling solo?

Who likes traveling for longer than 1 month and likes sticking to a tigher budget so you can go farther for longer?

Who likes a fancier travel journey?

Who seeks a spiritual journey?

Who uses travel to heal or grow or learn or transform?

I guarantee that those who raise their hand for each of these questions won’t look the same, or be in the same age range, or demographics, or have the same income levels, and more.

I attended an ASTA event last year and sat in on a session about finding your niche.

This was the first event that I went to in person post pandemic, or coming out of the pandemic.

I couldn’t believe the lack of depth to the topic, the old-school mentality that still exists, and the absence of ideas like transforming through travel, wellness travel, meaningful experiences, personal storytelling, the travel expert’s passion from travel and where it stems from, and attracting ideal clients in a personal and purposeful way.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the term “niche”. because you don’t need to serve 1 type of person or solve 1 type of need.

Instead, I like to say “area or areas of focus”.

 

So, here are a few tips to helping you find your area of focus in your travel business:

Where does YOUR love of travel come from? Why are you doing what you do today in this industry?

WHO can relate best to your story, transformation, outcome, experiences that you can help?

HOW has travel transformed or impacted you and your life?

WHAT kind of difference do you want to make in this industry and WHY?

What are YOUR interests, skills, expertise, and knowledge base when it comes to travel?

What problems, voids, and shortages have you experienced, learned, or realized in the industry that you can improve or help with?

I challenge you to think outside of the box when it comes to taking your travel business to new levels, to standing out in the travel industry by being YOU, and implementing what YOUR ideal clients want and how you best serve them.

We are ready to help you do just that in the Travel Coach Certification Program or hear more on this topic on the TCN Podcast