Patty;<BR>I agree with you, but there are a lot of people who just can't seem to manage.<BR>I wasn't advising sonodust to become a hack agent. It seemed to me that she would like to try tailoring trips for people who have a need. You never know?<BR>Sonodust might be able to make a go of it. If he/she really wants to do it I would of course hope that she/he does all of the necessary research and had actually been to the places that are in the trip planning. Like you I find real pleasure planning my excursions myself.<BR><BR>

I used to work for one of the UK's largest tour operators for almost 5 years. I left about a year ago.<BR><BR>I would say the following, though this applies to the UK market, as I don't know about the US or elsewhere.<BR><BR>These days the majority of travel agencies are owned by huge firms that also own one or more tour operator. <BR><BR>Agencies are awarded different commission rates for selling the same holiday - and this depends on volume sold. For example my company might give 12% commission to an agency that sold 1000 customers one of our holidays but only 8% to agencies who sold less than that.<BR><BR>It was referred to as the preferred agency scheme.<BR><BR>This means that the smaller independent agencies find it harder to survive. The ones that do survive are the ones who tend to tie themselves in to one or two tour operators in order to be able to sell sufficient volume of their holidays to get the higher commission rate.<BR><BR>The chain agencies tend to be very much just booking services. Their staff are paid pretty poorly (even taking into account commission and travel discounts) and are therefore often inexperienced and untravelled. Customers who want a high level of trip planning from an expert tend to be disappointed with these agencies and not to use them.<BR><BR>The less they are used for independent style bookings the less they are able to secure bulk discounts with airlines and hoteliers that they dont book regularly.<BR><BR>A separate point. Most travellers who do want more than a basic package holiday to the beach or an organised tour are pretty savvy now about prices and possibilities. <BR><BR>Even if they use a travel agent to help plan a trip they soon realise by researching on their own that they can book the same trip for less.<BR><BR>Once upon a time it was less easy for customers to be able to get info from an agent and then book the same trip themselves.<BR><BR>What this boils down to is that it really is hard to make it as one of the more expert independent agents.<BR><BR>Your target market is much smaller than it used to be - it's those who are rich enough AND also not likely to notice that they can price the same trip for same or cheaper themselves.<BR><BR>Another option is to look for a regular job within the travel industry. For example I was an IT Trainer working in the head office of my company and learned about and trained staff in all departments and also out in resort offices.<BR><BR>There were many many jobs that were not specifically travel related - HR, Finance, IT etc.<BR><BR>Kavey

what are your credentials? we may find a need for your skills.