Sheri Etterling, CTIE
The travel industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. Technology has made travel information more accessible than ever, while new business models have made it easier for individuals to enter the profession. One of the most significant developments has been the growth of multi-level marketing (MLM) travel organizations. While these organizations have introduced many people to the travel
industry, they have also created challenges related to advisor development, professional standards, consumer trust, and industry reputation.
This paper examines how travel agency owners can use the leadership principles taught in The Travel Institute’s Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) program to build high-performance advisor teams that distinguish themselves through expertise, professionalism, and client service. By focusing on coaching, emotional intelligence, strategic leadership, communication, team development, and change management,
agency leaders can create organizations that thrive in a competitive marketplace while preserving the integrity of the travel advisor profession.
Introduction
During my years as a travel advisor, I have witnessed tremendous changes in our industry. While I have worked professionally in travel for just under a decade, my interest in travel began long before that. Like many people who eventually find themselves in this profession, I spent years researching destinations, planning trips, studying cultures, and learning everything I could about the world. Travel was never
simply a hobby. It was a passion that eventually became a career.
That perspective has given me the opportunity to see our industry from both sides. I understand the excitement that attracts people to a career in travel, but I also understand the commitment required to become a true professional. Selling travel and advising travelers are not necessarily the same thing. One can be learned relatively quickly. The other often takes years of education, experience, personal travel, supplier relationships, and continuous professional development.
Over the last several years, I have watched more MLM-style travel organizations enter the marketplace. These organizations have undoubtedly introduced many people to the travel industry and have created opportunities for individuals seeking flexible business models. However, they have also created new challenges for agency owners who are committed to maintaining professional standards.
The challenge is not that more people are entering the industry. Every successful travel advisor started somewhere. The challenge is that consumers often struggle to distinguish between a professional travel advisor and someone who has only recently entered the field. To the average traveler, both may appear to offer the same service. Yet those of us who work in the industry understand that expertise is built over time.
Clients trust travel advisors with more than vacation plans. They trust us with family celebrations, milestone events, retirement dreams, and significant financial investments. When something goes wrong, they expect us to advocate on their behalf. When travel becomes complicated, they expect us to provide guidance. Those responsibilities require knowledge, judgment, and professionalism.
As a result, the conversation surrounding MLM travel organizations should not be centered on criticism. Instead, it should focus on differentiation. The question professional agency owners should be asking is not how to compete with recruitment driven organizations. The question is how to build advisor teams whose expertise, service, and professionalism clearly stand apart.
This is where the leadership principles taught through The Travel Institute’s Certified
Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) program become particularly valuable. Throughout
the CTIE curriculum, leaders are encouraged to focus on people development,
emotional intelligence, communication, coaching, strategic thinking, and organizational
effectiveness. These principles provide a roadmap for creating cultures where advisors
grow into professionals rather than simply participants in the industry.
In my experience, the agencies that consistently outperform their competitors are not necessarily the ones with the largest advisor counts. They are the organizations that invest in their people. They recruit carefully coach consistently, communicate effectively, and create environments where continuous learning is expected. They understand that leadership is not about managing transactions. It is about developing professionals who can deliver exceptional client experiences.
The future of the travel advisor profession will not be determined by who recruits the most advisors. It will be determined by who develops the best advisors. That distinction is what separates sustainable organizations from those that struggle to maintain credibility and consistency over time.
This paper explores how CTIE leadership principles can help agency owners build high-performance travel advisor teams that preserve professional integrity while creating sustainable growth. By focusing on leadership development rather than recruitment alone, agencies can establish competitive advantages that are difficult to duplicate and ultimately position themselves for long-term success.
The Integrity Challenge
When I first entered the travel industry, I assumed that most people understood what a travel advisor actually did. I quickly learned that many consumers still viewed travel advisors as people who simply booked vacations. What they often did not see was the work happening behind the scenes.
They did not see the hours spent researching destinations, comparing suppliers, understanding contracts, staying current on travel regulations, or resolving problems when plans changed unexpectedly. They did not see the ongoing education, supplier training, certification programs, and professional development required to stay relevant in an industry that changes constantly.
The reality is that travel advising is a profession. Like any profession, it requires knowledge, experience, judgment, and continuous learning.
One of the challenges facing our industry today is that the barrier to entry has become significantly lower. While this has created opportunities for many individuals who are passionate about travel, it has also created confusion about what it means to be a professional travel advisor.
Professionalism is not determined by how someone enters the industry. It is determined by what happens after they enter it.
I have met advisors who entered through a variety of business models and became exceptional professionals because they committed themselves to learning. They invested in education, traveled extensively, sought mentorship, and treated their clients’ vacations with the seriousness they deserved. I have also seen individuals enter the industry who never moved beyond basic sales activities because no one challenged them to grow.
The difference was not the entry point. The difference was leadership.
This distinction becomes especially important when discussing professional integrity. Integrity is often associated with ethics, honesty, and doing the right thing. Those qualities are certainly important. However, in the travel industry, professional integrity also includes competency. It means being qualified to provide the guidance clients are seeking.
When a client asks whether a particular cruise line is right for their family, they expect more than a brochure description. When a client wants advice about travel insurance, international air schedules, or destination requirements, they expect informed guidance. When something goes wrong during a trip, they expect advocacy and problem-solving. Trust is built when advisors consistently demonstrate competence.
Research on leadership and organizational performance consistently identifies trust as one of the most important characteristics of successful teams (Lencioni, 2002). In travel, trust is not simply an internal organizational issue. It is the foundation of the client relationship.
The agencies that earn the strongest client loyalty are rarely the agencies with the lowest prices. They are the agencies whose advisors consistently demonstrate expertise, responsiveness, and professionalism.
That is why leadership matters.
Agency owners who want to protect professional integrity cannot simply recruit advisors and hope they succeed. They must create environments where advisors develop the skills necessary to become trusted professionals. This requires intentional leadership, clear expectations, ongoing coaching, and a culture that values growth over shortcuts.
The CTIE framework provides practical tools for accomplishing this objective. Rather than focusing solely on operational management, CTIE encourages leaders to focus on developing people. In my view, that mindset is one of the most important factors separating high-performing travel organizations from those that struggle to maintain consistency as they grow.
CTIE Leadership’s Competitive Advantage
When I first began studying the leadership concepts taught in the CTIE program, I expected to learn techniques for running a better business. What surprised me was how much of the curriculum focused on people rather than processes. The more I progressed through the program, the more I realized that high-performing organizations are rarely built because someone has the best technology, the largest budget, or even the most advisors. They are built because leaders intentionally develop people.
That lesson is especially important today.
As more individuals enter the travel industry through a variety of business models, professional agencies need a way to differentiate themselves. In my opinion, that differentiation cannot simply come from marketing, supplier relationships, or commission levels. It comes from the quality of the advisors serving clients every day.
The strongest agencies I have encountered share one common characteristic. They view advisor development as a long-term investment rather than a short-term expense.
Create Professionals through Coaching
One of the most valuable concepts I took away from the CTIE program was the difference between managing people and coaching people.
Early in my career, I believed leadership meant having the answers. If someone came to me with a problem, I felt responsible for solving it. Over time, I realized that constantly providing answers often prevented people from developing their own problem-solving abilities.
Coaching takes a different approach.
Instead of immediately providing solutions, coaching encourages leaders to ask questions that help advisors think through challenges for themselves. Rather than saying, “Here’s what you should do,” a coach might ask, “What options have you considered?” or “What do you think would be the best outcome for your client?”
At first, this approach can feel uncomfortable because it takes more time. However, the long-term benefits are significant.
Travel advisors face unique situations every day. No training program can prepare someone for every supplier issue, flight cancellation, itinerary change, or client concern they will encounter. Advisors who have learned how to think critically become more confident and more capable of handling complex situations independently.
I’ve seen this firsthand.
The advisors who grow the fastest are often not the ones who know the most when they start. They are the ones who are willing to learn, ask questions, and develop their own judgment over time. Good coaching accelerates that process.
This becomes especially important when discussing professional integrity. Professional advisors are not simply following scripts. They are applying knowledge, experience, and judgment to help clients make informed decisions. Coaching helps build those capabilities.
In my experience, agencies that emphasize coaching create stronger advisors, better client experiences, and strong businesses.
Emotional Intelligence Builds Trust
One leadership concept that I believe is often overlooked in the travel industry is emotional intelligence.
Most people think of success in travel as being connected to product knowledge. While product knowledge is certainly important, it is only part of the equation.
Travel is emotional.
People travel to celebrate anniversaries, retirements, graduations, family reunions, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. They also travel during difficult times, including family emergencies and unexpected life events.
As advisors, we interact with clients who are excited, nervous, frustrated, disappointed, overwhelmed, and sometimes all of those emotions within the same conversation.
The CTIE curriculum emphasizes emotional intelligence as a critical leadership skill. Self-awareness, empathy, communication, and relationship management all contribute to stronger leadership and stronger organizational cultures.
Looking back, some of the most successful advisors I have worked with were not necessarily the ones who knew the most about every destination. They were the ones who built trust.
They listened carefully. They asked thoughtful questions. They remembered personal details. They remained calm when problems arose. Most importantly, they made clients feel heard.
Those skills are difficult to teach through product training alone.
They are developed through self-awareness, coaching, and intentional leadership.
The same principle applies internally. Advisors want to work in environments where they feel respected, supported, and valued. Leaders who demonstrate empathy and emotional intelligence create stronger relationships with their teams.
People are far more likely to stay with organizations where they feel connected than organizations where they simply feel managed.
Building a High-Performance Team
One of the challenges many agency owners face is moving from being an individual producer to leading a team.
Selling travel and leading people require different skill sets.
Many successful advisors eventually become agency owners because they are excellent at serving clients. However, building a team requires learning how to support the success of others.
The CTIE program introduced me to Tuckman’s stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing. While the model itself is straightforward, its practical application is something every leader encounters.
Every team goes through growing pains.
New advisors join the organization. Expectations are established. Conflicts arise. Personalities clash. Communication issues emerge. The question is not whether challenges will occur. The question is how leaders respond when they do.
I have learned that conflict is not always a sign that something is wrong.
In fact, some of the strongest teams develop because leaders are willing to address difficult conversations rather than avoid them.
High-performing teams share several common characteristics. They trust one another. They communicate openly. They understand expectations. They hold themselves accountable. Most importantly, they share a common purpose.
That purpose cannot simply be selling more travel.
People need something larger to connect with.
For many professional agencies, that purpose revolves around creating exceptional client experiences and helping travelers create meaningful memories. When advisors understand that mission, their work becomes more than a transaction.
It becomes a profession.
Long-Term Planning and Strategic Leadership
One of the biggest differences I see between high-performing agencies and struggling agencies is strategic thinking.
Many businesses operate in reaction mode. They spend their time solving immediate problems and responding to daily challenges. While those responsibilities are unavoidable, organizations that focus only on the present often struggle to build sustainable growth.
The CTIE program emphasizes strategic leadership as the ability to think beyond today’s problems and focus on tomorrow’s opportunities.
For agency owners, that means asking difficult questions.
Where do we want our business to be in five years?
What type of advisors do we want to attract?
What kind of reputation do we want to build?
How will we continue developing future leaders?
These questions require intentional planning.
One observation I have made throughout my career is that recruitment alone does not create sustainable growth.
Recruiting advisors may increase numbers, but numbers alone do not create strong cultures.
Strong cultures are built through leadership, accountability, training, and shared values.
The agencies that continue growing year after year are usually the agencies that have a clear vision of who they are and where they are going.
Their advisors understand the mission.
Their leaders reinforce expectations.
Their culture supports continuous learning.
Those characteristics are difficult for competitors to replicate because they are built over time.
Communication Matters
If there is one leadership skill that influences every other leadership skill, it is communication.
The CTIE curriculum includes DISC behavioral styles as a framework for understanding how different people communicate and process information.
This concept resonated with me because it explained why certain conversations seemed effortless while others felt challenging.
Not everyone communicates the same way.
Some advisors prefer direct conversations focused on results. Others need time to process information. Some enjoy collaboration and discussion. Others prefer detailed facts and analysis.
Effective leaders learn to adapt.
One communication style does not work for everyone.
I have found that many leadership problems are actually communication problems in disguise. Expectations were unclear. Assumptions were made. Feedback was not provided. Conversations were avoided.
When communication improves, many organizational challenges become easier to
solve.
That lesson applies to both advisors and clients.
The advisors who communicate clearly, consistently, and professionally often build the
strongest client relationships.
Likewise, the leaders who communicate effectively tend to build stronger teams.
Leading Through Change
If there is one constant in the travel industry, it is change.
During my years in travel, I have seen supplier policies change overnight, destinations close unexpectedly, technology transform the booking process, and consumer expectations evolve at a pace that sometimes feels impossible to keep up with. Long before I became a travel advisor, I spent years researching travel and watching industry trends simply because I enjoyed learning about the world. What has become clear to me
is that change is not something we experience occasionally in this profession. It is something we experience continuously.
One of the leadership lessons that resonated with me during the CTIE program was the understanding that people respond to change differently. Some individuals embrace it immediately. Others need time to process what it means. Still others may resist it entirely until they understand how it affects them personally.
As agency owners and leaders, we often make the mistake of assuming everyone sees
change the same way we do.
When a new technology platform is introduced, leaders may see efficiency and
opportunity. Advisors may see uncertainty and frustration. When organizational
changes occur, leaders may focus on long-term benefits while team members focus on
short-term disruption.
Neither perspective is necessarily wrong.
The challenge is helping people move through the change process successfully.
In my experience, communication becomes even more important during periods of change. Advisors want honesty. They want to understand why changes are occurring and how those changes will affect them. They want opportunities to ask questions and express concerns.
Unfortunately, many organizations wait too long to communicate. Leaders become so focused on implementation that they forget the human side of change.
The agencies that navigate change most successfully are usually the ones that communicate early, communicate often, and create opportunities for advisors to participate in the process.
This is especially important as our industry continues to evolve.
Technology will continue to influence how travel is researched and booked. Artificial intelligence will likely impact certain aspects of trip planning. New business models will continue entering the marketplace. Consumer expectations will continue changing.
The agencies that thrive will not be the agencies that resist change. They will be the
agencies that help their advisors adapt while maintaining professional standards.
To me, that is one of the most important leadership responsibilities we have.
The goal is not to avoid change. The goal is to lead people through it.
Recommendations for Agency Owners
Throughout this paper, I have discussed the challenges facing the travel advisor profession and the role leadership plays in addressing those challenges. While every organization is different, there are several practical steps agency owners can take to build stronger teams and preserve professional integrity.
Invest in Developing your Advisors
The first recommendation is simple: prioritize advisor development.
Recruitment may help an organization grow, but development determines whether that growth is sustainable.
Every advisor should have access to training, mentoring, supplier education, and professional development opportunities. Learning should not end after onboarding. It should become part of the agency culture.
The agencies that consistently produce exceptional advisors are the agencies that consistently invest in their people.
Create a Coaching Culture
Many leaders spend their time solving problems for others. Coaching encourages leaders to help people develop the skills needed to solve problems themselves.
Creating a coaching culture does not require complicated systems. It requires intentional conversations.
Ask questions.
Provide feedback.
Encourage critical thinking.
Recognize growth.
When advisors learn how to think independently, they become more confident and more capable of serving clients effectively.
Establish Clear Professional Standards
Professional integrity cannot be assumed. It must be defined.
Agency owners should establish clear expectations regarding client communication, continuing education, supplier knowledge, professionalism, and service standards.
When expectations are clear, accountability becomes easier.
More importantly, advisors understand what excellence looks like.
Promote Certification and Continuing Education
One of the strengths of our industry is the availability of professional education
programs.
Certifications such as CTA, CTC, and CTIE demonstrate a commitment to professional growth. They also help advisors build credibility with clients and suppliers.
Education should never be viewed as a one-time accomplishment.
The most successful advisors I know are lifelong learners.
They attend conferences.
They participate in supplier training.
They pursue certifications.
They continue developing their skills regardless of how long they have been in the
business.
Focus on Culture and Growth will come
Many organizations focus heavily on recruitment. While growth is important, culture should come first.
A strong culture attracts the right people.
A weak culture eventually drives good people away.
Agency owners should spend as much time building trust, communication, accountability, and collaboration as they spend recruiting new advisors.
The healthiest organizations are often the ones where people genuinely enjoy working together.
Develop Leaders not only Advisors
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming leadership development can wait.
It cannot.
Future leaders should be identified early and given opportunities to grow.
Mentoring, coaching, and leadership development should become ongoing priorities rather than last-minute solutions.
Strong organizations are built when leadership exists at every level, not just at the top.
Conclusion
The travel industry is entering a period where professionalism matters more than ever.
Technology has made travel information widely available. New business models have made it easier for individuals to enter the industry. Consumers have more choices than ever before when deciding where to seek travel advice.
At first glance, these changes may appear threatening to traditional travel agencies. I believe they actually present an opportunity.
The opportunity is to demonstrate the value of professionalism.
Throughout my career, I have learned that clients rarely choose advisors solely because of price. They choose advisors because of trust. They choose advisors because they want someone who understands their needs, answers their questions, and advocates for them when challenges arise.
That level of trust is earned through expertise, experience, and professionalism.
It is also earned through leadership.
The CTIE program reinforced a lesson that I have seen repeatedly throughout my professional life: organizations become stronger when leaders focus on developing people.
Coaching helps advisors build confidence and judgment.
Emotional intelligence strengthens relationships.
Communication improves collaboration.
Strategic leadership creates direction.
Team development creates accountability.
Change management helps organizations remain resilient.
Together, these principles create cultures where professionalism can thrive.
I believe the future of the travel advisor profession will not be determined by which organizations recruit the most people. It will be determined by which organizations develop the most capable professionals.
Professionalism is not determined by how someone enters the industry. It is determined by what happens after they enter it.
As someone who has spent years helping clients create meaningful travel experiences and a lifetime learning about the world through travel, I believe our profession has an incredible future. However, that future depends on leaders who are willing to invest in people, uphold high standards, and commit themselves to continuous improvement.
The agencies that do those things will not simply survive industry change.
They will help define the future of the travel advisor profession.
References
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Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance
organization. HarperBusiness.
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. Jossey-Bass.
Northouse, P. G. (2022). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.
The Travel Institute. (2025). Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE) leadership framework and study materials.
