The minimum requirement for those interested in becoming travel advisors is a high school diploma or equivalent; although many travel agencies prefer applicants who have a college degree in business or travel experience. If you have a specialized degree in traveling, it will help you go the extra mile.
The skills required by a trip advisor are very generic. You must have an outgoing personality and be able to approach your clients. They must have an appealing personality so you are able to make your clients feel comfortable and at home with you. But the most important skill that you should possess is to have a genuine passion for traveling. Travel advisors must also contribute to the success of the agency they are working with. They must have good salesmanship in order to convince the customers, and they should also have good analytical skills to understand the requirements of the customers.
As a travel advisor, you need to have good geographical knowledge. You must be aware of the best and worst time period that you can visit a particular place, or what big events or maybe even diseases that are going around at the time. An example of this is if your client wants to go to Brazil, you can suggest a time period for them that will be during the Carnival festival in Brazil.
Patience, flexibility and a good sense of humor are some qualities that will help a trip advisor go a long way. Also, you are supposed to have a sound knowledge of computers and the internet as most of the business these days is done using computers.
The success of a travel advisor lies in how well they are able to adopt the style and approach to suit customers. The advisor must be self motivated and must be able to work under pressure.
Being a travel advisor has great future prospects considering the number of people going for vacations and travel companies coming up. The estimated salary one can get as a travel advisor is highly subjective but it can be somewhere around $30,000 to $50,000 annually.
