The organisation – which now includes 11 members in the UK - held its annual symposium event in Cape Town, where it revealed the details of its research into how the travel advisor community is growing.
Overall in the past five years, Virtuoso said it had seen an 85% jump in network advisors between 2010 and 2015.
Meanwhile, 79% of agency owners said they were expecting sales to grow this year and 68% of them said they intend to add more staff.
Virtuoso chairman and chief executive Matthew Upchurch said: “Travel advisors have never been better poised for success because consumers continue to search for – and even demand – human interaction. But if you promote yourself solely as a way to book travel, you’ve lost before you’ve even started. As an advisor, you have to show the value you bring.”
Upchurch also shared new Virtuoso research on how new entrants into the profession are increasingly becoming million-dollar producers in record time, with year three marking the point at which they seem to become firmly established.
New advisors year one sales are an average of $402,215; year two moves to $1,050,821; and year three jumps to $1,443,419, Upchurch said.
Meanwhile their number of clients moves from a year one average of 66 to 172 in year three and client spend jumps from $6,081 in year one, to $8,403 by year three.
Virtuoso has also launched its Seven Habits of Highly Effective Travel Advisors, the result of research among these new advisors to understand which practices lead them to become million-dollar producers in record time, compared to counterparts who did not participate at such high levels.
Virtuoso gives 'bullish' outlook for travel advisors
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