$40,000 vacations inspire finance pros to become travel agents

By Redd Brown Bloomberg News Lisa Reich studied hard to become a forensic accountant She worked in the field for eight years and enjoyed interacting with her clients But the divorce cases she often dealt with were becoming depressing Related Articles The Kahlo family opens the doors of their house inviting visitors to Frida s beloved basement Colorado s best mountain towns for live music fans These historic San Francisco Bay area sites offer a reset for mind and body Visit a national park for free on Saturday Sept Rome s airport opens luxurious dog hotel with pampering services One day she wandered into a local journey agency looking to book a trip and got chatting they offered her a role as an independent contractor that day I m working half the hours and making quadruple my salary declared Reich who started her own agency in and noted her annual sales have been around million to million for the past three years When I was moving fields my mother reported to me You ve got a master s in accounting what am I going to tell the family reported Reich She s eating her words now Reich is one of a growing number of professionals who ve left the measure of jobs in finance law and other white-collar industries to join the rapidly swelling ranks of movement advisers a line of work that once seemed destined to disappear as movement planning moved online Over the past three years the number of people describing themselves as progress agents or advisers on LinkedIn increased by more than making it the fifth-fastest growing profession over that time For now the demand is there too Passage booked through advisers which includes accommodation flights and sessions is expected to hit billion next year in the U S equal to of the total region the American Society of Journey Advisors estimates Curation and backing are the main selling points that distinguish in-person advice from online services or AI booking options mentioned Eric Hrubant founder of New York City-based CIRE Passage in an interview Hrubant stated he gets about three emails each week from people asking what it s like to be a tour agent and whether there are entry-level jobs available at CIRE I m thinking about emerging my own coaching business he joked Hrubant mentioned particular of his ultra-high net worth clients easily spend in excess of six figures on personal progress annually while the average couple he books for spends around per year on two weeklong vacations For Amira Bixby the catalyst for switching careers came during the pandemic After almost three decades on Wall Street as an equity sales trader Bixby realized while working from home that it was the first time in years that she d been in the house when her children woke up When her employer called everyone back into the office five days a week she knew it was time to make a change Voyage was an obvious choice I was a luxury passage adviser before I was a luxury journey adviser explained Bixby who explained she would regularly help friends and clients plan trips and organized for her daughter s passage lacrosse group to stay at a Four Seasons hotel each season She values her newfound flexibility above everything else When you can work from anywhere your life changes drastically for the better she explained My son just graduated from UVA and you can imagine all the parties I was in UVA four out of six weekends Before that I was skiing in the Dolomites the mountain range in Italy Almost anyone can set themselves up as a voyage adviser though chosen U S states do require agents to register and apply for accreditation Numerous new agents will take online courses to boost their credentials and can join established passage networks to get access to insider deals at top hotels airlines and tour operators While a few agents charge a fee the majority of their earnings come through commissions from hotels or tour operators on services booked for customers Commissions can fluctuate depending on the operation but for selected of the biggest brands advisers usually get around of the value of the booking The amount that vacationers spend with tour agents also varies widely by agency A survey of ASTA advisers from located that the biggest proportion of clients spent between and per person per night with their journey planners At those rates a weeklong trip for a couple would range from to Lisa Tucker a law professor in Philadelphia started working with a trip agent about a year ago to plan vacations for her and her four children In April a getaway to Rome was disrupted by an overzealous party in the boutique hotel where they were staying and the front desk insisted no other rooms were available Then her movement agent intervened He made one phone call and suddenly they moved us into the presidential suite Tucker stated Not everyone who makes the switch to a career in progress planning increases their earnings at least not at first Julia Flood a former litigation lawyer in Toronto knew she d be making less when she stepped away from her job to become a trip agent The flexibility and freedom she gained from the switch were worth it I don t necessarily work fewer hours Flood revealed I do what I want and where I want I might be booking someone s trip while I m sitting in a caf in the South of France Booming expansion across the passage industry means that companies like Expedia Group Inc and Booking Holdings Inc which are integrating artificial intelligence into their online booking services have avoided any notable financial impact from the revival in voyage advisers This year voyage is forecast to contribute trillion to the global market system accounting for of total output according to the World Excursion Tourism Council By the end of the decade that figure is expected to climb to trillion At the same time new agencies are making the the majority of the resurgent interest in passage careers Fora Movement Inc was founded in to give wannabe trip advisers easy access to training and system as well as a grid of mentors and events In April it disclosed it had raised million in a Series B and C fundraising led by Josh Kushner s Thrive Capital and Insight Partners Co-founder Henley Vazquez stated about of the company s agents are new to the passage industry and are women numerous of them parents who appreciate the flexibility of the job For a few latest entrants it doesn t take long to start making decent money In the past three years we ve had advisers who have hit million in sales in their first year joining Vazquez declared in an interview Flood was introduced to Vazquez through a mutual friend in At the time she was still working as a lawyer but feeling increasingly disillusioned with her job She knew she needed to do something linked to voyage and Vazquez was just getting Fora off the ground What did she have to lose her new friend appealed I didn t have a mortgage I didn t have children I don t have any of those things that affect your thought process when making a big financial decision Flood mentioned So it was a great time in my life to make that transition and to make the leap and of discipline I ve never looked back For Bixby coming from a business background especially one involving close client relationships and money management in New York s lucrative finance industry has been a boon The first three trips she planned were for a former coworker a mutual fund client and a close friend Of late a hedge fund manager she d worked with called her up to help him plan a vacation They know I will protect their capital and it s not just money it s time she commented Bloomberg L P Visit bloomberg com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC