"Travel Counsellors" - worthwhile or are the majority MLM victims?

[WednesdayWitch]

Have seen quite a few acquaintances setting up as Travel Counsellors, either after quitting/losing jobs or changing up their careers post lockdown.

I'm considering a long haul holiday at the moment, and would love to leave the arrangements up to someone else, as well as take advantage of hacks, tips and discounts that they may have access to.

However, red flags start for me, with their self-marketing. I appreciate this is something they need to do to get a fledgling business off the ground, but there are also calls for other people to come and train, 'mumtrepreneur' cues and it seems like anyone can do this with no training.

What's it all about, and am I better off planning something myself?

Any good experiences or recommendations?

Ive seen a few people I know starting up as ‘independent travel agents’ all called Jetset with …..
These are definitely an MLM as they are always trying to recruit people to their ‘teams’

I think the issue for the genuine travel agent people is that their industry is being tainted by MLM in the market. The fact that several posters, me included, mixed up Inteletravel and Travel Counsellors.

We used a guy from Travel Counsellors for our trip to NZ earlier this year and he was brilliant - saved us £1,000 compared with a big name travel agency. He kept us up to date, made good suggestions that made sense for us, and helped us work out Visa and Covid complications. We'll definitely use him again.

Yes I think it’s a real problem for Travel Counsellors as you and others have mentioned. Sometimes the social media presence of a TC can look a bit amateur and a bit MLMish, but they are selling travel and being rewarded for selling travel. I haven’t seen any sign it’s more lucrative to build a team of travel agents than sell travel.

I was helping a journalist to write a piece about Inteletravel for a Sunday paper (which sadly got binned due to other more newsworthy occurrences in the days before it was due to be published). It would have been very bad PR for Inteletravel and for ABTA. Even that rigorous journalist had to be persuaded that TC were not in the same bracket. Perhaps they need more cohesive branding though I don’t know how or whether that can be enforced among independent operators.

The pandemic was an interesting window on the true agenda of Inteletravel. Their profits were boosted during a shutdown of the travel industry - how very odd! Meanwhile lots of people were looking for training and WFH opportunities and inteletravel able to mass recruit during the instability. What travel company makes a bumper profit during a pretty much world wide travel ban?!

I’ve met so many travel agents who are absolutely furious about Inteletravel’s apparent endorsement by ABTA etc so I think it’s not just TC being tarred with the same brush.

The TC who I use actually operates from a little office within our local college! She has been there since before I went to that college in 2000 (funnily enough as a Travel & Tourism student!) and in return for being allowed to use the office she would run small training sessions on Travel Agent Operations. She's a brilliant travel advisor with decades of experience! It's a shame they're not recognised in the same way as someone who works on a high street for Tui!

Definitely not MLM. A TC is purchasing a franchise and it is definitely not all about recruiting other TCs. I'm a new TC and to say you can do it with no training is absolutely false. You can do it if you have no experience in travel but there is intensive training you have to do before you go live.

I may not know everything about every destination (I have my specialisms) but I'm backed by a team of experts who know SO much more to help me create the perfect holiday.

As TCs we can operate exactly like a regular travel agent (only we are completely independent and aren't given holidays to push and sell) or we can act as a tour operator where we build a bespoke holiday that you can't go and buy from a travel agent.

I happily use TCs , really good customer service .

Not MLM but also don't have to be experienced travel agents. If you have £10k to spare they'll give you a franchise and train you.

They are definitely not. You're thinking of Inteletravel. Travel Counsellors are a well respected and well known in the industry tour operator. They are a large consortium who work with all the major airlines including the one I work for.

I am a TC and it is 100% not an MLM. We are franchisees and work on a commission basis only. However the support we get from the company is phenomenal. I became a TC after a career change with no previous experience of selling travel. However, the statement someone made that you can do it with no training is 100% false. Those who come in as a career change undergo a very intensive training programme and once they are live they still have a ongoing training programme over the first year that they have to work through, along with an experienced business mentor. And if you do come in through this route there is a sizeable upfront fee (to cover all the training) and so people who do it are serious about making a career out of it.

The recruitment process is very thorough. You can't just sign up. You have an interview and you have to submit a business plan. They do not accept everyone.

The ethos of the company is amazing and even though I work alone at home I feel supported by the whole company, both at head office, and by the individual TCs all over the country.

Yes, a new TC will use social media to promote themselves (all TCs will but new ones more so). You are not provided with clients so you have to promote yourself to gain them. This is also a business that you need to commit yourself to full time. It is not possible to do another job and do this on the side - a big giveaway with a lot of MLMs.

As for referrals, the only referrals I'm interested in are the ones where my happy customers refer me to their friends and family who want to book a holiday.

I think part of the problem is people calling themselves travel counsellors without being a franchise of Travel Counsellors

Unfortunately I had a pretty horrendous experience with them on a holiday to Morocco. Despite having confirmation of the accomodation etc when I got there they had no reservation in my name and were full.
I ended up spending the rest of my holiday in a place that was ..... 'ok' but nowhere near as nice as the place I had booked and paid for.
Though my TC tried doing what she could it was Head Office who were pretty shitty about the whole thing.

Travel Counsellors scammed us out of our honeymoon funds. We gave them $7300, they gave us $4500 in deliverables. They take no accountability. The whole thing was so sad, don't trust them and don't become a part of them. Preserve your karma.