Skills You Need to Work in Luxury Travel

1. Interpersonal Skills

If you want to enter the world of luxury travel, you must have excellent interpersonal skills. Remember, your job will require communicating and interacting with clients, assisting them in planning holidays tailored to their needs and desires.

As a luxury travel agent, you should speak in a language that will be easy for your clients to understand and ask the right questions. This will put your customers at ease while creating a space for genuine dialogue. Thus, it's also crucial that you have active listening skills. Having good communications skills also means being able to know when to stop and listen and summarising what your clients are saying. When talking to your clients in person, you should make eye contact with them. All these skills can help build a good rapport, which will directly impact your expertise.

Whether talking on the phone, via email, or face to face with the clients, interpersonal skills are, by far, the best asset that a luxury travel agent should possess besides completing an MBA luxury brand management online course.

2. Creativity

Creativity is also an essential skill that people working for the luxury travel sector should possess, especially if you plan on working in the public relations (PR) department. While this might sound like a cliche, every day is different in the role of a travel PR. It can be an exciting role that presents varying challenges and opportunities every day.

Working in the public relations department of a luxury travel company will require you to think creatively in coming up with PR campaigns and in designing websites and branding. You could also be tasked to write press releases regarding new hotel openings, organise media events, and pitch feature articles. All of these require creative thinking skills.

3. Organisational Skills

Organisational skills are important in every setting, regardless of what sector you work in in the luxury travel industry. As a luxury travel agent, being organised can save you time and effort further down the line. There are times that it can be tough to remember all the things you need to do in a day, so it's always a good idea to start your day by coming up with a to-do list and making sure you stick with it. You will find various tools online that can help you organise your tasks, but don't be afraid to use the old pen and paper method if you feel like it's much easier for you to write down things.

Another way to be more organized is to have a clear idea of the offers, products, and destinations your clients might find interesting. Not only will this help you to answer your client's questions straight away, but it also helps to buck up your image as a true travel expert.

Having good organisational skills also means prioritising your workload according to urgency. You should identify and keep track of any outstanding tasks you are expected to accomplish. Being able to see the bigger picture also means you'll be able to assess which of your tasks are urgent and which of them are less important.

4. Problem Solving Skills

When working at a luxury travel company, be prepared to deal with different issues and face many challenges. So, if you want to be successful in this field, you must have good problem-solving skills. Problem solvers are people who can observe, judge, and quickly act whenever difficulties arise. In addition, they are not afraid to face the unknown, which is important for employers who rely on their employees in identifying and solving different issues.

If you have good problem-solving skills, you will not have any issues assessing your clients' needs and prioritizing them. Furthermore, it will be easy for you to plan and execute strategies to meet your clients' needs. As a problem solver, you also can think outside the box. Thinking outside the box is an important problem-solving skill in luxury travel as it can often lead to better outcomes than those originally planned.

Since luxury travel often comes with many challenges, especially in this day and age, it's important that you can work well under pressure. Most problem solvers have personalities that can respond well under pressure, including meeting deadlines on a very tight schedule.

5. Numeracy Skills

When working as a luxury travel agent, it's important that you are able to work out commissions and fees quickly. Therefore, one of the skills you need to possess is numeracy skill. It's the ability to recognize and apply mathematic concepts in all aspects of your work. It also involves understanding numbers, solving number problems, adding, multiplying, subtracting, and so on.

If you plan on working as a commission-based travel agent, then it's more important than ever that you have numeracy skills. You must research how the commissions and fees of the travel agency work. Find out what commission model they use and the average commission percentage they pay.

Working as a luxury travel agent means you will be dealing with clients that have sprawling budgets. And although money is usually not a big issue for upscale clients seeking luxury holidays, it's important that travel agents are able to compute the numbers for them and help them make the best decision quickly and easily.

Sure, working in luxury travel does not come easy. But once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to benefit from so many perks, such as being able to travel the world for free!