What does a Travel Specialist do?
A travel specialist is primarily in charge of assisting clients with their travel arrangements, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Their responsibilities typically include offering services and travel promotions, arranging plane tickets and hotel accommodations, providing cost estimates, and recommending itineraries. They may also perform administrative tasks in travel agencies such as preparing and processing documents, answering calls and correspondence, maintaining records of all transactions, and liaising with external parties in adherence to the company's policies and regulations.
Travel specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real travel specialist resumes:
- Negotiate contracts, book event/meeting space; manage corporate housing for independent contractors, including RFP's and ROI's.
- Audit travel reservations and expense reports identifying policy violations and /or potential fraudulent activity, and escalate as necessary.
- Perform every role from booking hotel/transportation/dining/convention/translation services for a primarily Japanese clientele.
- Service diverse facets of corporate domestic and international travel for multiple Apollo accounts.
- Research destinations and assist clients in booking travel arrangements and accommodations, both domestic and international.
- Coordinate and monitor reservations (domestic and international) to include discount travel from various travel companies.
- Book Amtrak, cars, hotels, and all airlines.
- Coordinate transportation/reservations, utilize Apollo reservations software
Travel specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 23% of Travel Specialists are proficient in Reservations, Booking, and Hotel Reservations. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Customer-service skills, and Detail oriented.
We break down the percentage of Travel Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Reservations, 23%
Managed domestic and international corporate travel (Becton-Dickinson Pharmaceuticals, American Social Health Association) utilizing Amadeus reservations system.
- Booking, 14%
Performed every role from booking hotel/transportation/dining/convention/translation services for a primarily Japanese clientele.
- Hotel Reservations, 5%
Use computerized reservation system to process payments, book transportation and hotel reservations and print required documentation for customer.
- Customer Issues, 4%
Worked closely with Team Leads and Managers to resolve escalated customer issues.
- Travel Authorizations, 3%
Utilized E2 travel management tool to access travel authorizations and assist the travel management center in end-of-month billing procedures.
- Expense Reports, 3%
Prepared internal monthly expense reports and providing recommendations for alternative methods and sources for more effective and cost effectiveness.
Common skills that a travel specialist uses to do their job include "reservations," "booking," and "hotel reservations." You can find details on the most important travel specialist responsibilities below.
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a travel specialist to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "travel agents must listen to clients’ travel needs and offer travel advice and information that meet those needs." Travel specialists often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "facilitated the daily audit and processing of employee expense reports, filing, and communication with employees. "
Customer-service skills. Another essential skill to perform travel specialist duties is customer-service skills. Travel specialists responsibilities require that "travel agents must be able to interact with clients and respond to questions and complaints in a friendly, professional manner." Travel specialists also use customer-service skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "provide excellent customer service and follow-up to all aaa clients. "
Detail oriented. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of travel specialists is detail oriented. This skill is critical to many everyday travel specialist duties, as "travel agents must ensure that the reservations they make are for the dates, times, and locations that match travelers’ schedules." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "spear-headed all aspects of the tours including sales, booking, logistics, itineraries, and trip details. "
Organizational skills. For certain travel specialist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "organizational skills." The day-to-day duties of a travel specialist rely on this skill, as "travel agents often work on itineraries for many clients at once." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what travel specialists do: "plan and conduct new employee orientation to foster positive attitude toward organizational objectives and customer service. "
Sales skills. Another common skill required for travel specialist responsibilities is "sales skills." This skill comes up in the duties of travel specialists all the time, as "travel agents must be able to persuade clients to buy transportation, lodging, or tours." An excerpt from a real travel specialist resume shows how this skill is central to what a travel specialist does: "assist clients with travel needs via walk-ins, inbound telephone inquiries and outbound sales calls to existing and former aaa clients. "
The three companies that hire the most travel specialists are:
- CROSSMARK101 travel specialists jobs
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.10 travel specialists jobs
- Aya Healthcare6 travel specialists jobs
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Compare different travel specialists
Travel specialist vs. Cruise counselor
As corporate travel agents, they primarily work to coordinate all travel-related concerns such, reservation, flight cancellations, itinerary adjustments, and other unanticipated circumstances happen. They work in travel agencies or departments handling personnel travel details. It is part of their tasks to search and negotiate the lowest possible rates for group business trips. They often work full time in an office setting, but some prefer to work remotely since much of their time is spent on the computer and phones. Moreover, they also gave recommendations concerning weather conditions, local norms, and sightseeing attractions.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a travel specialist are more likely to require skills like "hotel reservations," "customer issues," "travel authorizations," and "expense reports." On the other hand, a job as a cruise counselor requires skills like "customer service," "customer calls," "travel arrangements," and "sales strategies." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Cruise counselors tend to reach similar levels of education than travel specialists. In fact, cruise counselors are 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Travel specialist vs. Tour agent
A Corporate Travel Counselor prepares ground travel, hotel, rail travel, and air transport arrangements for customers. They keep accessible online materials to ensure conformity with the client's travel policy. Besides interacting with travel managers, travelers, and travel arrangers, corporate travel counselors also read, master, and expound international pricing procedures and rules. Other duties performed by corporate travel counselors include recommending travelers of various international travel requirements such as immunizations, visas, passports, and more. Also, these professionals deal with different client issues and handle technical issues.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, travel specialist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "booking," "customer issues," "travel authorizations," and "expense reports." Meanwhile, a tour agent has duties that require skills in areas such as "telephone messages," "sales floor," "data entry," and "crs." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Tour agents earn similar levels of education than travel specialists in general. They're 1.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Travel specialist vs. Corporate travel consultant
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from travel specialist resumes include skills like "travel authorizations," "gds," "corporate travel," and "dts," whereas a corporate travel consultant is more likely to list skills in "customer service," "excellent client," "onsite," and "sabre gds. "
When it comes to education, corporate travel consultants tend to earn similar degree levels compared to travel specialists. In fact, they're 1.6% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Travel specialist vs. Corporate travel counselor
Even though a few skill sets overlap between travel specialists and corporate travel counselors, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a travel specialist might have more use for skills like "travel authorizations," "expense reports," "gds," and "corporate travel." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of corporate travel counselors require skills like "customer service," "car rentals," "sabre gds," and "schedule changes. "
Corporate travel counselors reach similar levels of education compared to travel specialists, in general. The difference is that they're 0.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.8% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of travel specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
