Where a travel agent can go next
12 destinations recorded, ranked by how much of the target role a travel agent already meets. The closer to the top of Table 1, the less there is to learn.
Travel agents design and market travel programme itineraries for potential travellers or visitors.
Also known as reservations agent, travel booking agent, sales agent, travel sales agent.
Clerical support workers 58 skills on file 12 career moves 2 above 60% overlap Closest: travel consultant, 71%
- 70% and above · short step
- 50 to 70% · real move
- Below 50% · substantial retraining
Table 1 · Within reach
- travel consultant 71% covered · difficulty 39
- tour operator representative 65% covered · difficulty 43.1
- hospitality establishment receptionist 53% covered · difficulty 51.4
- hotel concierge 53% covered · difficulty 43.4
- tourist animator 51% covered · difficulty 50.9
- hotel butler 49% covered · difficulty 47.2
- ticket sales agent 45% covered · difficulty 52
- camping ground operative 44% covered · difficulty 54.9
Table 2 · A bigger jump
Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.
Table 3 · What the job itself asks for
A travel agent needs 38 required skills and areas of knowledge. These 10 are the ones fewest other jobs share, so they say the most about the work.
- advertise travel insurance communication, collaboration and creativity
- sell tourist packages communication, collaboration and creativity
- produce content for tourism brochures communication, collaboration and creativity
- ensure the privacy of guests assisting and caring
- oversee all travel arrangements management skills
- provide customised products communication, collaboration and creativity
- quote prices assisting and caring
- apply foreign languages in tourism communication, collaboration and creativity
- self-service technologies in tourism information and communication technologies (icts)
- manage visitor flows in natural protected areas information skills
Table 4 · Jobs that lead here
The reverse view: occupations whose skills already cover much of what a travel agent does. The figure is how much of this job each one brings.
Look up another occupation
Travel agent is filed under Clerical support workers, ISCO major group 4. The full index lists all ten groups.
How these figures were compiled
Overlap is how much of the target role is already part of a travel agent’s work. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.