What makes a great travel advisor? Someone who’s confident, well-informed, up on trends, well-travelled.

What makes a great travel admin assistant? Organized. Crazy about details. Informed on taxes, payment due dates etc. Obsessed with tour docs and accuracy.

Is it possible that the same person can combine all these personality traits?

As an ITA, chances are you switch daily between your sales and your admin hats, calling for very different skill sets. Maybe it’s time to consider having someone come to your aid with the nitty gritty after you have closed the sale.

This works for a number of Vision ITAs who know their strongest skills are in selling. Once the sale has closed, the advisor introduces the client to the admin assistant who then is responsible for payments, insurance sales, docs and answering any general questions about the itinerary.

That advisor can also handle routine bookings such as air only, rail, hotel and some ITC business.
One reason this arrangement works so well is because the ITA reassures clients that they will be looked after by an extremely efficient individual that the advisor trusts implicitly.

This can be a wonderful win-win: an enthusiastic, sales-oriented advisor gets to do what he or she loves most – selling – while a meticulous, detail-minded organizer who would rather remain behind the scenes finds the perfect niche.

Let’s all look for ways to make ourselves happy and successful in 2020!

Lynda Sinclair, CTM, is the Senior Vice-President – Leisure at Vision Travel, which has an ever-expanding and vibrant program for independent agents. With over 60 years in the Canadian retail travel industry Vision “Lives and breathes what goes on at the front line.” Lynda can be reached at lynda.sinclair@visiontravel.ca.