Denele Kramer, CTIE
To understand how to manage stress in our daily lives, we first need to know what stress is and what causes it. There are several classifications of stress. Acute stress is our body’s reaction to “fight or flight” when we are faced with an immediate threat, such as an attack. The kind of stress that most people have but push down and try to ignore due to their jobs, bills, family, and daily living is called chronic stress. This is the kind of stress that, after a period of time, causes your body and mind to be affected if not treated. Then there’s distress, which is a major change in your life, such as a divorce, injury, or financial issues. But not all stress has a negative effect; in fact, eustress is the type of stress that has a positive outcome, like a wedding, graduation, or a new baby. While eustress can be stressful at the time, it has a happy ending, and the stress dissipates. The trick to stress management is to pinpoint where the stressor is coming from and deal with it. But how do we manage stress, and why is it beneficial to do so?
The travel industry was especially vulnerable during 2020 and even much of 2021 due to the Covid pandemic. Travel industry professionals were dealing with clients’ vacation cancellations, loss of their income, and an uncertain future in the travel business. Travel agents were working harder than ever to cancel and reschedule vacations with little to no compensation. Many agents that I spoke to told me that it was worse than the travel disruptions after 9/11, and for some, it brought back awful memories about that time period, similar to a PTSD response. Due to stress-related burnout and the lack of job security, the travel and tourism industry lost nearly 63 million jobs worldwide during that period. That number is staggering for one industry.
Stress is taking its toll on agents in 2025 and beyond as well, due to the uncertainty in world politics, client demands, gas prices affecting airline tickets, new travel warnings due to a war in the Middle East, security concerns due to terrorism and violence in certain areas, misinformation on social media and the internet, constant new protocols and details to keep up with, and the perceived threat of AI taking over their jobs. Not to mention weather-related events that create havoc for agents to pivot at the last minute for the well-being of their clients. The list continues to grow. Now more than ever, agency managers need to take a proactive approach to helping agents deal with the stressors of this industry before they reach burnout and leave the business altogether.
Since 2007, the APA (American Psychological Association) has conducted a yearly nationwide study to gauge how many Americans consider themselves stressed and what the cause is. It’s called The Stress in America™ survey. The results are astounding. In the 2025 study,” the future of the nation was a significant stressor for 76% of participants, followed closely by the economy at 75%, and their work and the spreading of misinformation, tied in the poll at 69%. That means that nearly 7 out of 10 participants reported that work was a significant stressor in their lives, the highest since 2020.” (Stress)
There were many reasons that the participants in the study listed as reasons for their stress. The results of this survey also brought to light the stress that people are still dealing with and the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic due to job loss, death, chronic illnesses because of an infection, and the general uncertainty of not only their own lives but their nation. Division within the country, a growing sense of loneliness, and the demands and pressures of their job versus the payoff were top on the list of reasons why they answered the survey the way that they did. In short, there is a national mental health crisis that is affecting many and will result in physical and mental consequences for many years to come.
Stress can affect our whole body in different ways. Headaches, increased depression, anxiety, insomnia, digestive issues, heart attack, high blood pressure, fertility problems, low libido and sex drive, and muscle tension are just a few of the symptoms of stress. Some of these symptoms are chronic and will have long-term effects if the stress factor is not lowered or managed in some way. Overall, stress is exhausting to both your body and your mind.
Once you have identified the significant stressors associated with the symptoms, there are many ways to manage your stress. Getting the part of your brain that reacts to stress to calm down is an important first step. The amygdala needs to be retrained, especially if we are dealing with a traumatic experience. This requires us to acquire a list of coping mechanisms in our arsenal that work for us. It’s important to understand that not everyone will react to some of these stress management solutions in the same way. But finding what works for your own situation or your staff is an important first step. This is why managers in the travel industry need to find solutions for their staff’s stress levels.
Grounding ourselves both in a physical sense and mentally is important. Your brain may be reliving a past trauma that is causing stress (such as the agent’s response to 9/11 or the COVID pandemic), and grounding yourself in the present moment can help to refocus your brain. Physical grounding can involve breathing techniques meant to calm you. You might find that taking your shoes off and physically touching the floor or grass with your toes helps you. Sometimes, people react to sensory objects instead, such as a spinner ring or a polished stone to keep in their pocket. Still, others may react to a smell such as lavender oil on a cotton ball to ease their stressful thoughts. Many agents that I know have a scent diffuser in their office to help keep themselves and their clients calm. The senses are an important factor in how to deal with stress in an immediate way.
Meditation and prayer are also ways to calm your mind. Being mindful during meditation is important, no matter what you consider your best meditation style. Prayer, depending on your religious background, can be helpful to some. Other activities such as yoga, exercise, painting art, or coloring in a coloring book work for some people. For many travel professionals, just taking a breath and walking away from the immediate situation to clear their minds is helpful, especially after a particularly stressful interaction with a client or a long hold time on the phone with a supplier. The point is, everyone has their own style of what works for them, and there is no wrong or right way.
In many cases, music is a big part of stress management. The average person will listen to music four hours a day. For some, listening to a relaxing soundtrack while working is a great way to put their mind at ease. Music can be a way to keep calm in a stressful environment, especially if you are able to drown out the distractions and noise around you. Others will respond better to a different style of music instead or prefer white noise. It’s okay to have different musical preferences; what works for one person may not work for everyone else.
Writing or journaling can also assist in stress management. Many mental health therapists recommend journal writing to help their clients process the things that are stressors in their lives. For some, writing it out on paper or on the computer helps them to get it out of their head so that they can move forward and process their thoughts about it in a more beneficial way. This is especially important if the stress is caused by a traumatic event in their lives. Some agents find that writing a to-do list at night before bedtime of things that they need to work on in the morning helps them to get it out of their mind so that they can get a good night’s rest.
Physically, our bodies need relief from stress as well. Some of the ways that we can manage stress in our bodies are to have a relaxing massage, get acupuncture treatments, energy healing such as Reiki or reflexology, or holistic chiropractic treatment. Since stress and depression can manifest themselves as physical pain, these are all great ways to find relief.
Of course, some medicines can be used to treat the mental or physical symptoms that stress causes. Depression/anxiety medications are common nowadays. High blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, and many other physical symptoms can be treated with medication. However, just treating the symptoms and not addressing the root cause of the stress can lead to further complications. Psychotherapy (talk sessions) with a professional therapist is also helpful in combination with medication or any of the other stress management solutions.
Self-care is another great stress reducer. Managing your time and doing things that make you satisfied, like taking a walk, reading a book, or going to the movies, can alleviate and prevent stress from overcoming you. Another self-care idea to manage the way you deal with these types of stressful situations in your life is getting enough sleep and eating well. Many people think that using alcohol and/or drugs is a good way to help them relax and deal with an issue; however, the use of these substances can make matters worse. Finding the things that work best for you and your staff is important.
Having a support system in your agency where colleagues or a team leader can help you to troubleshoot and fix any issues is also very important. The experience and camaraderie that can be harnessed with a group of travel peers is immeasurable when it comes to managing stress. Management needs to be open and transparent with their employees and contractors so that they can confide in them if they are feeling overwhelmed or need a break for their well-being and mental health. Having an empathetic manager or peer who is willing to listen to your issues and help you to solve problems can assist travel professionals in managing their stress levels. Supporting your team, combined with some of the other alternatives to reduce stress, can help to avoid professional burnout in the tourism and hospitality industry and keep your agents happy for the long term.
Managers in the travel industry can put protocols in place to make sure that their agents do not reach burnout. Some suggestions are to assist agents in creating boundaries for their clients. Being available 24/7 for an emergency is one thing, but there needs to be boundaries set so that you do not respond to clients’ needs at all hours of the day. If it can wait until the next work day, then agents need to be able to wait to respond. Training an agent on how to make a workflow so that they do not feel overwhelmed is another great option. Creating lists by order of urgency helps to give the agent more control over prioritizing their workload. Managers can also encourage their agents to take some time for themselves by encouraging a self-care day or treating the staff to a special in-office treat to let them know that they understand the stress and responsibility of their job. There are many ways that managers can assist their staff in stress management, but the biggest way is to be available and open to communication from their staff and be observant of the way the staff may be handling a stressful situation. Everyone wants their voice to be heard.
There are many different treatment options to manage stress in our lives. While some stressors may be larger than others, the fact is that everyone will eventually deal with some type of stressful situation in their lives. Whether it’s at home or at work, or a combination of both, our daily lives are filled with challenges that can cause us to freak out in some way and create a stressful situation. The important thing about stress management is that we first identify the root cause of the stress. Unless we know what the issues are that are causing the problem, we cannot resolve them. Secondly, we need to find what works best for us to treat the issues. Avoidance is not a viable treatment. If we don’t deal with it and the stress continues to increase and is not managed, this could lead to bigger issues for both our physical and mental health in the long term. This is the reason why stress management is important for everyone, and no one is exempt, including the travel industry.
Works Cited
Covey, Claudette. How Travel Advisors Can Combat Stress and Burnout. TravelPulse, 27 Apr. 2024, www.travelpulse.com/news/agents/how-travel-advisors-can-combat-stress-and-burnout.
Daily Life – the American Institute of Stress. The American Institute of Stress, www.stress.org/daily-life#:~:text=Stress%20causes%2057%25%20of%20US,stress%20in%20the%20previous%20day.. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
Employment Loss in Travel and Tourism Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic Worldwide from 2020 to 2022, by Region. Statista, 28 Nov. 2025, www.statista.com/statistics/1104835/coronavirus-travel-tourism-employment-loss/?srsltid=AfmBOor9KrofZxNNTWNr1zRdi3hX_0QByQusvHQNP9S-lDW2rFXvC4nS. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.
Harper, Faith. Unf*ck Your Brain: Using Science to Get Over Anxiety, Depression, Anger, Freak-Outs, and Triggers. Microcosm Publishing, 2017.
Lamberton, Lowell, et al. Human Relations: Strategies for Success. 7th ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2021.
Robinson, Lawrence, and Melinda Smith. Stress Management: Strategies to Deal with Stress. HelpGuide.org, 17 Mar. 2026, www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm.. Accessed 23 Mar. 2026.
Stress in America™ 2025. American Psychological Association, 6 Nov. 2025, www.apa.org/pubs/reports/stress-in-america/2025.
The American Institute of Stress, www.stress.org/workplace-stress/. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
Weisinger, Hendrie, and J. P. Pawliw-Fry. Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most. Currency, 2015.
