How To Become A Travel Counselor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a travel counselor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted Expert

Diane Petras

A travel counselor is a certified travel agent who helps clients in planning trips and travel. He/She counsels clients on interesting vacation destinations and attractions. He/She handles buying their air tickets, making hotel reservations, and booking rental cars. Also, he/she educates his/her clients on local customs and conditions. Travel counselors work in the travel and hospitality industry, where they specialize in business clientele, adventure junkies, foodies, global explorers, and so on. They make visa recommendations, resolve technical issues, attend to customer complaints, and offer travel information.

Employers often require applicants to have a high school diploma or its equivalent. However, some prefer hiring applicants with more industry-specific training. You can earn certification through a trade organization like The Travel Institute. Essential skills for this role include customer service, creativity, attention to detail, problem-solving, and communication skills. The average base pay for this position is $42,262 per annum. It varies between $30,000 and $60,000.

What general advice would you give to a Travel Counselor?

Diane Petras

CTIE, president, The Travel Institute

Agents should expect business to return when the pandemic passes. In fact, there is already significant, pent-up demand with consumers who want to travel. Short-term, this demand has translated into 1) greater interest in domestic travel as a more comfortable, familiar option for now, and 2) bookings for travel itineraries a year or more out. Longer-term and post-pandemic, the travel industry is expected to fully recover for both national and international travel bookings. Both short- and long-term, agents need to understand and communicate with travelers on new health-related travel protocols and, possibly, emerging health-related ratings for suppliers and destinations. In the meantime, given the fluidity of changes in travel restrictions and destinations, agents can also expect great professional camaraderie as agents are sharing dynamically-changing travel and destination details so that the industry can best serve all travelers.

ScoreTravel CounselorUS Average

Salary

3.5

Avg. Salary $44,934

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

7.0

Growth Rate 20%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.0

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.11%

Asian 7.86%

Black or African American 7.55%

Hispanic or Latino 13.52%

Unknown 4.49%

White 66.47%

Gender

female 75.46%

male 24.54%

Age - 52

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 52

Stress Level

7.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

6.6

Complexity Level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.4

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

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Key steps to become a travel counselor

Explore travel counselor education requirements

Most common travel counselor degrees

Bachelor's

49.0 %

Associate

22.7 %

High School Diploma

9.3 %

Start to develop specific travel counselor skills

Skills	Percentages
Reservations	40.78%
Apollo	5.82%
Ground Transportation	5.20%
Booking	5.14%
Corporate Travel	4.69%

Complete relevant travel counselor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New travel counselors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a travel counselor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real travel counselor resumes.

Gain additional travel counselor certifications

Travel counselor certifications can show employers you have a baseline of knowledge expected for the position. Certifications can also make you a more competitive candidate. Even if employers don't require a specific travel counselor certification, having one may help you stand out relative to other applicants.

The most common certifications for travel counselors include Travel and Tourism Professional (TTP) and Certified Travel Associate (CTA).

More About Certifications

Research travel counselor duties and responsibilities

Manage corporate travel arrangements for business accounts, including passport and visa documents.
Deliver comprehensive administrative support, with focus on coordinating travel arrangements, with this DoD contractor.
Create PDFs prior to being send to print vendors and edit sell sheets for product introduction mailings.

Prepare your travel counselor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your travel counselor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a travel counselor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Travel Counselor Resume templates

Build a professional Travel Counselor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Travel Counselor resume.