importance placed on developing young travel advisors.” Friedman notes that progress is being
made and points to MMGY’s 2019-2020 Portrait of the American Traveler, which showed Millennials are more likely to use a travel advisor than older generations, which could mean an even better trend in relation to Gen Z and Gen Alpha. “The more familiar young people become
with travel advisors,” Friedman says, “the more normal it is to encourage their peers to become and advisor, or even pursue it themselves.” ASTA has long been at the forefront of addressing this issue. The ASTA
Verified Travel Advisor (VTA) certification program has all the tools needed to train up a travel advisor of any age, but two specific courses “Roadmap to Becoming a Travel Advisor” and “Career Overview” are aimed at brand new travel professionals — all on an easy-to-use digital platform younger travel advisors love. Many of our partners are working on their
own next-gen training as well. Friedman notes that Nexion has developed a virtual program called “Travel Leaders of Tomorrow.” 45% of the participants are under 40. “The future is bright!” Friedman says. A big piece of that bright future is Julie
Pflaumer of Destinations by Julie in Rozet, Wyoming. She’s a next-gen travel advisor herself, and recently made a big splash by planning a trip which allowed a trio of veterans to take a bi-plane excursion after they’d given up their original plans due to COVID — even crowdsourcing the funding. Pflaumer was able to do so not only because she’s a talented travel advisor, but also because she actively leads a Facebook group for travel advisors. It was that community, many of them next-gen travel advisors as well, that helped lead to Pflaumer’s success, which was chronicled not only in local media but also around travel trade media as well.