Key Skills for Travel Agents in 2022

Emotional intelligence and personal experience in online communications

During the pandemic, many people in various fields have moved their businesses online. The use of online platforms has enabled companies to stay afloat without losing clients and profits. The travel industry is no exception: the solution to many issues facing travelers has moved online.

Now, many countries are gradually lifting or significantly reducing their COVID restrictions. This means that it won’t be long before travel agencies open their offices and return to communicating with clients in real life. That being said, the online business format isn’t going away anytime soon, so agents will need to interact with tourists who come to the office and also with those who prefer to communicate online via messengers. 

With online work, it’s much more difficult to strike a deal due to the lack of personal contact, since online correspondence most often comes across as unemotional. Such a small thing like leaving out a punctuation mark, smiley, or emoji, or receiving an answer immediately after a message is marked as read, can upset a client, suggest that his issue is not being addressed, or that his problem is not being taken seriously.

Agents will need to interact with tourists who come to the office and also with those who prefer to communicate online via messengers. Photo: Anutr Yossundara / Shutterstock.com

Relationships between travel agents and clients largely depend on the emotional aspect of communication, which is why it is so important to show empathy, flexibility, and that you are actively listening.

The following simple rules for correspondence will help build rapport with clients:

• be sure to check names, company names, and product names – it’s easy to make a mistake and offend the recipient by showing a lack of attention
• express care – make the information that is presented as simple as possible by breaking the text down into paragraphs, removing redundant words, and using bullet lists
• be specific – if the client asked a series of questions, be sure to answer them all. If you’re not able to answer right away, indicate the amount of time you need to resolve the issue, and, even if you don’t meet this deadline, make sure you contact the client and say that you need a little more time.
• check the format, title, and content of attachments
• don’t send voice messages if the client is not used to this format of communication. The client may perceive this as a sign that you are not prepared to make the effort to type.
• if you can’t make do without voice messages, be sure to ask the client if it is convenient for them if you answer in this way. If the voice message ended up long and contains important information (numbers, names of hotels or cities), be sure to duplicate it in text format.
• don’t communicate outside of business hours – not everyone is ready to devote 24 hours a day to business issues, and distracting a person from personal affairs is unethical

Video calls are yet another option. The advantage of this method of communication is that you can read the non-verbal reactions of the person you are talking with and quickly reach a mutual understanding.

Thanks to video calls you can read the non-verbal reactions of the person you are talking with and quickly reach a mutual understanding. Photo: fizkes / Shutterstock.com

Another important aspect of social skills is to draw upon your personal experience and use this content in your own blog or Telegram channel. During the pandemic, many travel agents maintained blogs, in which they shared their emotions and opinion about the situation, expressed empathy for clients, and talked about their own travel experiences. Moreover, they answered questions in real time, and thus gained the trust and interest of clients, with whom they went on to form lasting friendships with. 

To sum it up, three main principles of social skills can be highlighted: 

• As you return to offline work, don’t forget about clients who prefer the online format. When you correspond with these clients, remember that they do not see your emotions and do not feel your mood: be attentive and polite.
• Use video calls – it’s important for both you and your clients to see emotions and perceive non-verbal cues.
• Share your personal experience by talking about your own trips to develop warm relationships with clients.

Digital skills

Maintaining online communication with clients is not everything – it’s also important to have an arsenal of digital tools. Digital marketing has always played an important role, and its importance has not diminished after the pandemic.

Digital marketing is a tool that uses digital channels — which may range from ads in Telegram channels to contextual advertising — to attract and retain clients.

The most common tools include:

• digital TV and online radio;
• advertisements in apps, social networks, messengers, and online games;
• SMS newsletters;
• advertisements on interactive and outdoor LED screens and self-service terminals;
• SEO and SEM – search engine marketing on the Internet;
• contextual advertising, banners, and teaser advertising;
• marketing in social networks;
• e-mail marketing;
• affiliate marketing.

Of course, it’s important to not only use the above-mentioned promotion opportunities, but to also be able to analyze the results correctly, in other words, to work with data in order to subsequently make more efficient business decisions – Web analytics skills will certainly come in handy here.

Website users accumulate a huge amount of information, which can be useful for a promotion strategy, analysis, and decision-making: this data can give clues about how to navigate the behavior patterns of tourists, their pains and needs, how they shop, travel trends, and forecasts.

It’s important to not only use the above-mentioned promotion opportunities, but to also be able to analyze the results correctly. Photo: NicoElNino / Shutterstock.com

Awareness of the latest events

A travel agent always knows the answers to the trickiest travel questions: if friends have different opinions and a quick Internet search gives incomprehensible results, the most reliable option is to contact a specialist. Thus, awareness of the state of the travel industry as a whole and other more particular issues is a key skill to possess. 

At the start of the pandemic, the important information was about cancellations, changes, and rescheduling of trips, and later on, the demand for domestic tourism increased rapidly. Travel agents had to gather and process information about the domestic tourism market and cultural sites, and determine new trends: who’s going where, what’s interesting there, and how to get potential clients interested in this.

Then, the new knowledge base about tests, certificates, and entry rules appeared, which was very complicated to navigate because the data was changing almost every week. The latest trend has been for countries to ease their entry rules, and this also requires attention.

It’s no less important to research the cultural events that are currently taking place in your home country and abroad. Travelers have really missed going to events that were canceled due to the pandemic, which is why you should stay up to date with cultural events in order to attract their attention. 

Awareness of the state of the travel industry as a whole and other more particular issues is a key skill to possess. Photo: Viktoriia Hnatiuk / Shutterstock.com

Financial and legal literacy

Even before the pandemic, disputable situations with returns, cancellations, and force majeure circumstances occurred rather frequently in the travel business. It was necessary to know and apply the law in many situations, for example, when a flight was delayed or a visa was not issued to a client.

Financial literacy is also a fundamental skill for a travel agent; it is needed, for example, when making bookings, processing transactions, or issuing refunds. 

In order to provide financial and legal support to clients when they make bookings, travel agents must expertly use their knowledge of accounting and legislation.

You can follow the latest changes in legislation on special websites, such as the Lexadin website, where you can become familiar with the legislation of more than 180 countries, and on the EUR-Lex website, where you can study the legal rules of the EU member countries.

Planning

Travel agents masterfully manage the logistics of trips: sometimes, a client wants to visit several cities, move between them using different modes of transportation, check out of a hotel in such a way that they can immediately travel on further, and not have to search for a place to store their suitcases before their departure.

Continuous professional development

Having all the necessary skills is not enough; these skills must also be constantly improved. This will enable travel agents to move up the career ladder, to attract more clients and provide them with better services. 

For professionals in the travel industry, there are dozens of available online courses that range from learning new languages to perfecting negotiation techniques.

As an example, The Travel Institute is a travel industry professional training project that works in collaboration with industry leaders to provide students with applied knowledge and skills. 

It’s also possible to take a course from IATA, the world’s largest airline trade association. Each of the organization’s courses, starting from those meant for a travel agency’s junior positions all the way up to courses for the senior management of agencies or tour operators, goes towards receiving an IATA qualification, which is internationally recognized in the travel industry.

There are dozens of available online courses that range from learning new languages to perfecting negotiation techniques. Photo: 13_Phunkod / Shutterstock.com

Faith in yourself

Of course, it’s possible to get by without this skill, but it’s complicated. As with any other skill, self-confidence is also something that must be worked on, developed, and improved. When you feel tired, insecure, and powerless, remember at least three (but we know there are more) clients for whom you planned the perfect trip, who wrote enthusiastic messages in capital letters and brought you back souvenirs as a token of gratitude.

An individual traveler can spend many hours studying the nuances of a trip (from choosing a destination in a specific season to creating a schedule of excursions that will suit everyone), and there most likely will be moments left unaccounted for, and the process itself will probably be quite exhausting. This is a completely different matter for the travel agent wizard, who has insider knowledge and experience that very few can match.

Who else can artfully juggle panicky phone calls, floods of e-mail inquiries, and rapidly changing global rules?! My point exactly!

It’s not easy to be a high-class professional in the travel industry (especially in times like these), but nothing is impossible. New situations, tasks, and ordeals only make industry professionals stronger, tougher, more efficient, and more productive. Remember: don’t stop at what you’ve already achieved, don’t be afraid of difficulties, and remember that knowledge and skills will always be valuable assets.

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