Do you think a travel agent is a good job?

I'm thinking of becoming a travel agent and studying for it, do you think its a good career move?



For general career info: http://www.bls.gov/oco and can search 'travel agents', 'lodging managers' (like hotel management that someone else suggested) or such.





I'm not really sure how much agents are needed these days due to the internet and such as others have pointed out. I do know that agents may work irregular hours including nights and/or weekends since a lot of people would prefer to call on the weekends to plan their vacation.





If still interested, please consider the more affordable programs such as the county vo-tech school or community college (or even state uni if interested in bachelor's degree) as opposed to those private $$ tech schools.





Please also forgo those online, for profit schools such as penn foster, capella, ITT tech, sanford brown, university of phoenix, kaplan, strayer, devry, walden, stratford career, US career and others: http://www.ripoffreport.com and can type into search.





For US colleges: http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ




My neighbour is a travel agent, and she has a really nice house :) No, in all seriousness i think it is a great job, she has been doing it for a while, and worked up the ranks, and she is away every weekend or two to numerous different countries, constructing tour plans, and networks, she gets paid to travel as well. Of course there is the more humble job of not travelling with others but sending them on their way, and that is still fulfilling. Anything where you get to see the world is a good job, and worth the time. It is good pay and I guess a very good job for someone without a young family or dependent kids. My dad used to work for a travel company in the 80s and he said it was the best thing he ever did, he got to see the world and meet wonderful people in the process, to be a little of the mainstream track and see the world in a different perspective. I hope it works out well. Good luck!




It used to be a good career, but things have changed. The internet with all the travel sites have put many stand alone travel businesses out of business. Also, the recession has stopped much of the travel, as people do not have extra money to throw away, having lost their jobs, home values, IRA values.




My mom owns a travel agency, but up until like 2 years ago she wasn't an owner, she was just an agent and she made alright money. She is a single mom with three kids and we have like a nice house and everything, so you make like good money as long as you sell a good amount since a lot of your pay comes from commission.




It's a very detail oriented and multi tasking job. Well, there isn't much you can do to study for it-there is hotel management majors in college but nothing else like travel agent. You just need very strong administrative and social skills.




the internet has effectively killed this job.