Home Based Travel Agents Gain Momentum

As the home based travel agent phenom continues to gain momentum, so does the caliber of travel agent operating under this model.

Agents are producing more and making more money.Several factors have contributed to the measurable increase in the average annual bookings and income per agent.

These include:
1. No more stigma of being home based. Millions of Americans across all industies are doing it. At the same time, bigger travel agency's are closing their bricks & horror (I just made that up) agencies and moving businesses home.

2. Travel suppliers embracing are creating the tools to support home based agents

3. Host agencies:
a.) Hosts alleviate the “non-revenue producing tasks” associated with operating a small business. This frees-up the agent to sell more travel.

b.) Higher commissions. Agents with hosts enjoy commission level they could never attain on their own.

c.) Technology. This includes consumer Websites, email marketing programs, extranets and Blogs like this one.

d.) Service /Support. Hosted agents are in business for themselves, not by themselves. The clout a host agency can lend you is a tremendous value.

4. Home based agents focus heavily on high margin products. Big tickets mean big commission checks!

5. A shift in consumer awareness back to the value of working with a travel agent. This trend is just beginning to pick-up speed. The same cycle happened to stockbrokers back in the late 90’s. Investors soon realized there are certain thing are better left in the capable hands of an expert.