Almost a decade into her career as a forensic accountant, Lisa Reich walked into a local travel agency hoping to book a vacation. After a bit of chatting, the agency offered her a position as an independent contractor, an opportunity that she happily accepted, having become disenchanted with her high-stress day-to-day.
By 2021, Reich had started her own agency and told Bloomberg her annual sales were between $3 million and $3.5 million. "I'm working half the hours and making quadruple my salary," she says.
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Reich is among a growing number of white collar workers who are ditching fields like finance and law to become travel consultants. The number of people listing their jobs as travel agent or travel consultant on LinkedIn has grown by more than 50% over the last three years, Bloomberg says. According to that measure, travel agents have become the fifth-fastest-growing profession.
Eric Hruband, founder of CIRE Travel, told Bloomberg that he typically receives around three e-mails a week from people looking to break into the industry. "I'm thinking about developing my own coaching business," he joked.
Former equity sales trader Amira Bixby made the decision to become a travel agent just after the pandemic. During lockdown, it became clear to her just how much the grind of Wall Street was preventing her from doing. When she decided it was time to pursue a new career path, travel felt like the obvious choice.
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"I was a luxury travel adviser before I was a luxury travel adviser," she told Bloomberg, recalling how she'd previously helped many of her friends plan their own travels. She says the flexibility of the field has been one of its biggest perks.
Travel advisors can work from anywhere, and many states don't require any sort of formal registration or licensure to begin working, Bloomberg says. Pay structures are also open-ended, with some agents taking a fee up front and others preferring to pocket commissions from hotels and tour operators they place their clients with.
That said, not everyone who moves from corporate to travel necessarily increases their earnings or cuts down on the number of hours they work.
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Julia Flood, a former litigation lawyer from Toronto, says she works the same number of hours she did in her old job, but enjoys the fact that she can now do "what I want and where I want— I might be booking someone's trip while I'm sitting in a café in the South of France."
Many of these formerly white collar travel agents find that their backgrounds have helped establish the all-important trust with their clients needed to get their companies off the ground. After all, no one wants to risk dropping $40,000 on a vacation just to find their advisor unreachable if, and when, problems arise.
Bixby, for example, says she has planned several of her earliest trips for former colleagues and clients. Their satisfaction had them recommending her to others, and things took off from there. "[My clients] know I will protect their investment, and it's not just money, it's time," she told Bloomberg.
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