Published on Travel Weekly

While veteran travel advisors with decades of experience continue to dominate the U.S. travel agency workplace, the industry is showing positive growth when it comes to new agencies and advisors, according to “The U.S. Travel Agency Landscape 2022,” a report prepared for Allianz Partners by Travel Weekly in partnership with Phocuswright. 

The study, based on an online survey of 1,356 travel advisors, confirms an increase in new entrants into the marketplace. Nearly 50 percent of respondents, for example, have worked in travel 10 years or less, compared to just 21 percent in 2019. In addition, 23 percent of traditional agencies have started within the past five years, a sizeable jump from the 10 percent reported in 2019. And eight percent of survey participants had started a new agency within the last two years, while the number of storefront agents jumped by five percent since 2021. 

The fact that new travel advisors and new agencies are entering the market seems to indicate that efforts to attract new talent are having positive results, the report concludes.  

Industry experts are also reporting growth. “There has never been a better time for new travel advisors to come into the industry,” says Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel Group in Irving, Texas, who began her career in 1984 as a frontline agent. “The pandemic certainly didn’t slow the interest. If anything, consumers developed more awareness of the importance of booking with an advisor.”

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