This year’s National Travel Agent Survey results highlighted several new notable trends, including new information that home based agents include younger members and they are morphing into roaming agents.

Thanks to technology, home based agents can work from anywhere. Agents have embraced a ʻRoam-Basedʻ lifestyle.

This year’s survey revealed that agents are getting very creative in combining personal freedom and travel with remote work. This can mean going somewhere warm for part of the winter or heading to the lake country in summer. Literally the world itself becomes their office!

Remote work also allows agents to travel more to the destinations they sell and experience destinations in depth. Some agents reported working from as far away as Costa Rica, the D.R. and Mexico during the winter months.

But itʻs not just that agents can now travel to destinations – they really can work from anywhere. Gone are the days when you were confined to a travel agency or a call centre and attached to a desktop computer. Now a laptop or an iPad allow agents to literally assist clients from virtually anywhere.

Agents report working from cottages and coffee shops across the country.

The survey shows that some of the primary reasons agents become home based is to avoid commuting, to have a better work/life balance, to earn more. They also want to be able to sell

what they want and have more independence in general.

Over 70% considering going home based 

So it is no wonder that more and more agents want to go home based. This year’s survey showed that of agents still working in a call centre or an agency, over 70% are considering going

home based.

Agents are a lot less fearful of going home based than in the past – likely because they have seen so many of their friends and colleagues in the industry do it and become successful.

And the majority of agents who switch to home based end up earning more and retaining more of their sales.

Remote work attracting younger new entrants

The travel industry was facing a serious problem just a few years ago with many travel professionals retiring – or approaching retirement – and a shortage of new entrants.

The survey shows this is changing with home based agents being younger by an average of 5 years – with some being 10 years younger – than their non-home based counterparts.

And some home-based agents are newer to the industry, with 15% of respondents having entered within the last 1-5 years, compared to less than 2% of non-home-based agents.

These findings shed light on how the home-based model is attracting fresh talent, offering a flexible, low-barrier entry point for new travel advisors. As the industry evolves, home-based

agencies are proving to be a key driver in attracting the next generation of travel agents.