At Vision, our team of independent travel advisors are incredibly diverse. But one thing most of them share is that they are specialists.

The power and potential of specializing came out loud and strong at the annual Virtuoso Travel Week conference last month in Las Vegas. It was wonderful to see the contacts being made, lessons learned – and marketing money being given.

By honing your expertise in a destination, a trip-style (e.g. destination weddings), a sport, a hobby or interest or a travel-style (e.g. small ship cruises), you have such potential to become more time-efficient, to close sales faster, get more referrals and build up a great network of in-destination suppliers. Not to mention build a fabulous resource of up-to-date info from your recently-returned clients!

So, how do you get to be a specialist?

First, follow your passion. What sorts of trips do you love to arrange? What are your own personal interests? (If you are a golfer, you’ll speak with much more confidence to golfing clients!) Join associations, LinkedIn and Facebook groups; subscribe to publications about your interest/niche; connect with suppliers. Reward your clients for recommending your service to their like-minded friends. Take the time and invest the money to experience the product.

One of our most interesting and engaged independent travel advisors here at Vision is based in the small town of Cambridge, ON. Her niche is selling (wait for it) African-American clients jazz-themed tours to Paris. Obscure? Perhaps. But it’s her passion, her specialty and even better, her source of a steady income.