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Increase your earnings? Travel More
Here’s a way for agents to increase income: travel more. “That’s just part of it, not the key, but it’s important,” Mary Ann Ramsey told TravelMole. She should know something about it because she was named 2003 Travel Agent of the Year at the recent American Society of Travel Agents‚ convention in Miami. Ms Ramsey graduated from the Michigan State Hotel School in East Lansing in 1975, worked for a year in the hospitality business and then became a travel agent. She is currently the owner of Betty Maclean Travel Inc. in Naples, Fla., which has about two dozen agents. “They‚re all profitable. They‚re all well educated and they all are certified by the Travel Institute,”said Ms. Ramsey. She has very little turnover, and some agents have been with her for as long as 18 years, she said. One common element they share is a love of travel. “I think you have to love travel and have a passion for it in this business,” she said. She believes a key to her agency‚s success has been extensive travel. While her agents have to limit their travels, they share information with each other, which in turn leads to helping their clients. “The other day, one of my agents booked a cruise that she was on. She recommended a cabin she knew about from first-hand experience,” said Ms Ramsey. Another key to success, however, is “Education. Education. Education,” she said Her agents frequently take courses through the Travel Institute and other sources. The Florida-based agency specializes in leisure and luxury travel. “Like everybody else, we were hit by 9-11, when times were quieter. But we‚ve always maintained a good base,”she said. Travel agents can’t be just ticket-takers; they must be business-oriented. The biggest change in her more than two decades in the business is not the elimination of airline commissions, as might be expected, but the many new technologies in the marketplace. She thinks travel agents will be around for a long time. “As long as they provide consultative services, they will be in demand,” she said.
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