Fora Targets the Travel Agent Skills Gap

- June 29, 2024 - princis
Skift Take Fora touts itself as a modern travel agency giving individuals, even those with zero experience, the opportunity to become a travel advisor while keeping their day job. But the potential risk has seen it up its game from a free-to-join model to a quarterly subscription offering, with in-house tech, tools and advanced training. Selene Brophy Deploying travel advisors with zero travel booking experience sounds like a bad idea. But travel agency Fora believes it is leveling the playing field for individuals passionate about travel to earn extra income by planning and booking trips. Skift previously reported on Fora’s…
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Hundreds of travel agents close down amid coronavirus pandemic, others barely survive

- June 28, 2024 - princis
Miriam Henry was on a five-and-a-half-month travel adventure when she felt sick in late March. Key points: Travel agents are one of the worst-hit sectors in the COVID crisis and the industry is calling for $250 million in Federal Government support Many have seen revenue plummet by over 100 per cent, while others have exited all together There is hope international travel bans will ease, bringing much needed business back “About a week out from coming home I started to get a small cough which I thought was something I normally get in the winter.” Miriam’s travel agent Linda Forster…
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How this man fought for $5,200 after a travel agency spent his airline vouchers — on other clients

- June 27, 2024 - princis
Surinderpal Gill trusted the travel agency where he bought tickets for a family trip to India two years ago. But then he found himself out more than $5,200 and his trust was broken. Last June, Air Canada sent All Link Travel, based in Toronto, three vouchers to compensate Gill for return flights that were canceled as aviation ground to a halt amid the pandemic. But instead of telling him, Gill says the travel agency repeatedly said there was no sign of the valuable travel documents. It then used those vouchers to pay for trips for other people. “I feel like…
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San Diego Travel Agent Charged With Embezzling Funds for Canceled School Trips – NBC 7 San Diego

- June 26, 2024 - princis
A San Diego-based travel agent has been charged with including hundreds of thousands of dollars paid by more than 150 parents for school trips that were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Marie Colette Martin, 52, is accused of spending the funds on personal expenses rather than refunding parents after the trips were cancelled. She has pleaded not guilty to 27 felony counts of grand theft and seller of travel violations. Prosecutors allege more than $415,000 was included in total. In a statement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said, “More than 150 California families set aside their hard-earned money to…
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TravClan plans to onboard two million travel agents, Hospitality News, ET HospitalityWorld

- June 25, 2024 - princis
TravClan, a B2B Travel Platform aims to onboard more than two million travel agents/companies across more than 100 countries doing business of 10 billion dollars on the platform. Starting with just ten employees in October 2018, the company clocked INR 100 crore in sales run rate by December 2019. Even in the wake of the pandemic, TravClan continued growing and we are a 60-plus team today. Recently, the travel platform launched the B2B flight booking and hotel booking platform for agents. ET HospitalityWorld spoke to Arun Bagaria, Co-founder, TravClan to know more about the company. ETHospitalityWorld (ETHW): Tell us about…
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Waukesha woman creates travel agency | Waukesha Co. BusinessNews

- June 23, 2024 - princis
WAUKESHA — A Waukesha woman decided to travel a new path, which included going into business for herself. Emily Schultz, the owner of Magic Mom Travel, launched her agency in June. Previously she worked as a travel agent for seven years, serving the southeastern Wisconsin area. Schultz enjoyed making new connections through servicing clients’ vacations. Get daily updates from The Freeman sent directly to your email inbox. SIGN UP “After seven years I was doing things all on my own. I had my client base and it was going well,” Schultz said. She then made the decision to launch Magic…
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Travel Industry Study Reveals Latest Travel Agency, Advisor Trends

- June 22, 2024 - princis
Travel Weekly and sister brand Phocuswright have teamed up to release the 2022 Travel Industry Survey, revealing the latest trends among travel agencies and travel advisors across the US The research project was conducted through an online questionnaire sent out to Travel Weekly and TravelAge West subscribers in addition to members of various consortia and host agencies. The 1,356 participating travel advisors are either currently employed by a travel agency, are independent contractors for a travel agency or are travel agency owners or managers and responded between July 22 and August 15, 2022. The travel advisor age breakdown was similar…
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