Starting a Travel-Related Business

This multi-trillion-dollar industry offers plenty of opportunities

By Betty W. Stark, Business travel consultant and columnist, Stark Consulting

Sometimes all it takes to be bitten by the travel bug is a top-of-the-world experience on a personal vacation. Before you know it, you’re telling anyone who’ll listen that you love to travel and you’ve heard that the best (and cheapest) way to do it is to get into the travel business yourself. After all, what’s so difficult about arranging trips for others, or maybe escorting tours all over the world?

Once that travel bug has latched on, it’s very easy to overlook some of the painful pitfalls that can come with operating a travel-related business. For starters, it’s a huge, fragmented industry that carries a “product line” of gargantuan proportions. Airlines, hotels, rental cars, cruise ships, biking tours, islands in the Caribbean, ski resorts in Austria, trout streams in New Zealand, literary tours of Great Britain, penguin sightings on the edge of the Antarctic continent, inns in Vermont... the list goes on and on.

To narrow down options and determine your own best-fit, you should:

1. Learn how the travel business works.
2. Choose an area of specialization.
3. Take courses.
4. Join professional groups.
5. Don’t overlook the legal stuff.

Learn about the industry

Because the travel industry is so big, it’s important to get from “I want to do it all” to “I am best suited to (fill in the blank): run a small travel agency... work as an at-home agent... be an international tour guide... arrange dive trips to Australia... manage business travel for corporations,” etc.
Try: Find information about being a travel agent at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) Web site. Learn the important roles that the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) play in selling airline tickets. Look into major airline reservation systems like Sabre, Galileo, and Worldspan. Find out what the Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics have to say about the life of a travel agent.

Take a course, read a book

Because the travel industry is so diverse, the learning curve can be steep. Rather than using a sink-or-swim approach, choose an area of interest and then take courses and read specialty books to build and enhance your expertise. Ask a local travel agency if you can apprentice or take an entry level job to start out. The more specific knowledge you bring to travel clients, the greater your chances of success.
Try: into travel schools listed by state and country at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) Web site. Take a course at the International Tour Management Institute. Look into professional tour management training. If you have the budget for it, consider an American Express cruise franchise and the learning opportunities that come with it. Check out online learning options at The Travel Institute. Read one or more of Gerald Mitchell’s books on being a tour guide.

Align yourself with quality professional organizations

Because much of the travel industry is unregulated, credentials and affiliations do matter. When you have determined your area of specialization and have some experience under your belt, set out to earn the designations offered by a veritable alphabet soup of trade groups.
Try: If you plan to operate a travel agency, look into membership in the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) or the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA), and check out the Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) designation offered by The Travel Institute. If your focus is business travel, consider membership in the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) or the National Business Travel Association (NBTA).If you want to work as an at-home agent with a host agency, check out the National Association of Commissioned Travel Agents (NACTA). To make your mark in cruise sales, join the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). If your goal is to be a tour operator, look into membership in the United States Tour Operators Association (USTOA).

Don’t overlook legal issues

It’s easy to get caught up in the fun and excitement of the travel business. But it’s a business just like any other. Don’t overlook the importance of forming a legal entity within which to conduct your business, consulting with a tax advisor, establishing bank accounts, and making sure you have adequate insurance coverage. And find out if your state requires a license to be a travel agent---a few do.
Try: Incorporate your business, find a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), set up bank accounts, compare quotes on business insurance. Look into licensing requirements on state Web sites (currently only nine states have formal license requirements: Washington, Rhode Island, Oregon, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Hawaii, Florida, and California).