One of the biggest challenges when someone enters the travel industry is figuring out where to start.
There is certainly no shortage of information. Supplier trainings, webinars, Facebook groups, conferences, podcasts, YouTube videos, and advice from other travel professionals are everywhere. But having access to information and having a strong educational foundation are two very different things.
For a new advisor, piecing all that information together can quickly become overwhelming. For an agency owner bringing new people onto the team, it can create a different challenge: feeling like you have to teach them everything about the travel industry yourself.
You don’t!
That’s where the TRIPKIT® program can help. The Travel Institute’s introductory training program gives new travel professionals a structured foundation in the travel industry and can be used by agency owners as part of their onboarding and training process. Instead of trying to figure out what to learn or teach first, TRIPKIT provides a place to start.
And, if you’re considering TRIPKIT this month, there’s an added opportunity: throughout October, Princess Cruises is offering students $100 in Tuition Assistance toward TRIPKIT.
If you are an agency owner, your new advisors absolutely need to learn the things that are specific to your business. They need to understand your systems, preferred suppliers, workflows, service fees, client processes, and expectations. That is where your time and experience are especially valuable.
But you do not necessarily need to build an entire travel industry education program from scratch.
Before an advisor becomes an expert on a particular cruise line, resort brand, or destination, there are foundational pieces they need to understand. How does the travel industry work? What is the role of a professional travel advisor? How do you qualify a client? What happens throughout the booking process? What are the professional and ethical responsibilities that come with helping someone plan and book their travel?
Giving new advisors a structured foundation can also create more consistency within an agency. Instead of one person learning from a collection of webinars, another getting information from social media, and someone else relying entirely on what another advisor says, everyone can begin with the same core knowledge. From there, an agency owner can build on that education with the processes and expectations unique to the agency.
But you do not have to be joining an agency for this to matter.
If you are brand-new to the travel industry and trying to get started on your own, it can be just as difficult to know what you should learn first. It is easy to jump straight into destination or supplier training because those opportunities are everywhere. But knowing the products you can sell is not the same as understanding how to work as a travel professional.
Starting with the fundamentals can give everything you learn afterward more context. Once you understand the industry and your role within it, supplier, destination, and specialty training can become another layer of the education you are building, rather than a collection of information you are trying to piece together.
Let TRIPKIT Do Some of the Heavy Lifting
For someone entering the industry independently, TRIPKIT provides a structured place to begin instead of trying to determine what you need to learn and in what order. For agency owners, it can become part of the onboarding process, providing foundational industry training while allowing you to focus your own training on the systems, processes, and expectations unique to your agency.
Either way, the goal is the same: give new travel professionals a strong starting point. From there, they can begin applying what they learn, building their skills and continuing their education as they grow in the industry.
There always will be more to learn in travel. New destinations, suppliers, systems, and opportunities are part of what makes this industry exciting. But when someone is just getting started, more information is not always the answer. Sometimes what they really need is a clear place to begin.
Whether you are creating an onboarding program for your agency or taking your own first steps into the travel industry, you need not reinvent the wheel.
Start with the foundation, then build from there.
