Eight Lessons for DMOs from Top-Performing Travel Advisors

For Global Travel Advisor Day on May 8, let’s pay closer attention to these travel trade professionals. Top-performing travel advisors became top-performing because they have spent time learning and understanding what makes the market tick. And with the travel advisor career path becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., DMOs want to make sure they understand these professionals fully.

So on Global Travel Advisor Day, DMOs need to stop and ask what makes advisors so effective. Advisors aren’t just booking agents, afterall. They’re trusted creators of travel experiences in destinations like your own. By understanding them, destinations can apply those same principles to their own efforts. These eight lessons, drawn from top-performing advisors, can help DMOs deepen relationships and better support travel trade success.

Lesson 1: Know Your Audience Inside and Out

The best travel advisors succeed because they take time to understand traveler preferences, needs, and deal-breakers. Moreover, they plan accordingly to avoid issues. Knowing what someone wants and needs is vital to creating the right experience, and oftentimes top-performing travel advisors know this information better than the travelers themselves.

DMOs can do the same, tapping into research and insight to know more about today’s travelers and how they are different from previous generations. 

Lesson 2: Personalization Is Everything

Building on that, the most top-performing travel advisors use their intel to craft tailored trips that keep travelers coming back.

DMOs need to do the same and offer segmented content and curated itineraries that match traveler personas and motivations. This is especially important if you know your destination has a particular appeal among certain travelers like families, LGBTQ+ individuals, or adventure seekers. DMOs can work with advisors to offer detailed, up-to-date destination guides that help them anticipate and personalize. 

Lesson 3: Relationships Drive Results

Strong advisor-supplier relationships are the foundation of success for top-performing advisors. They rely on each other and stay in touch frequently, guaranteeing that every traveler experience is optimized.

DMOs need to foster the same sort of collaboration with advisors to ensure smoother execution and happier clients. DMOs need to continue fostering long-term relationships with advisors through regular touchpoints, recognition, and collaboration—not just one-off campaigns. This is key to creating sustainable success.

Lesson 4: Confidence Comes from Firsthand Experience

The best travel advisors sell what they know and trust. They don’t just point at a catalog (remember catalogs?). They experience their trips as much as possible and share firsthand encounters that help make them seem even more attractive to visitors.

DMOs staffed by locals who live in the destination can easily overlook the value of a FAM trip. Engaging traveler advisors with virtual tours, sample itineraries, and local insider trips is a powerful way to bring that firsthand experience to the table. And making an immersion trip easier should be at the top of any to-do list when it comes to working better with advisors.

Lesson 5: Education Equals Empowerment

FAM trips can’t teach everything, and top-performing travel advisors are hungry for information all the time. What’s new? What’s coming up? What’s changed? These are the things that drive advisors to sell a destination effectively rather than just repackaging the same experience year after year.

So help them do just that by providing regular training and toolkits. Use webinars to share quarterly updates and supply easy-to-navigate trade portails to keep advisors up to speed. More than just selling your destination, this attention to detail helps ensure they sell your destination in the most accurate way possible.

Lesson 6: Advisors Sell Stories, Not Just Products

Advisors don’t pitch a hotel—they paint a picture. They share the history, the local culture, and the people who make your destination so vibrant and unique.

DMOs need to support that storytelling by providing photography, emotional hooks, and local narratives that bring a destination to life. Visitors want to come back with an interesting story to tell about something entirely one-of-a-kind, so help travel advisors tease those stories with the right assets.

Lesson 7: Speed and Simplicity Matter

Sure, who isn’t busy these days? But the top-performing travel advisors are often the ones who respond to an email quickly—and who expect you to do the same.

Destinations need information quickly to ensure their clients (who are, of course, also busy) book your destination. To that end, DMOs need to streamline their downloadable assets, maps, and other collateral on their travel trade websites. And make sure it’s up to date. 

The more seamless and intuitive your communication efforts are, the more quickly travel advisors can finalize bookings.

Lesson 8: Trust and Transparency Build Loyalty

Finally, top-performing travel advisors are honest with clients. Not every destination is for everyone, and they can’t be expected to sell something to a traveler who simply won’t enjoy it.

These advisors expect the same sort of transparency from DMOs. That means being upfront about any big changes or seasonal nuances that will make the experience different from what that same travel advisor may have experienced on their FAM trip. Big construction? Travel closures? Museum closures? Be transparent upfront because proactive communication helps prevent missteps that affect client satisfaction—and builds trust over time.

Travel advisors shape how travelers experience your destination—and rely on DMOs to deliver smooth, meaningful trips. This Global Travel Advisor Day, don’t just celebrate advisors. Learn from them, too.

Apply these eight lessons to elevate your trade partnerships, inspire confidence, and help advisors do what they do best: sell your destination. And if you want some help, get in touch with Vanessa Gonzalez-Hernandez at vanessa.gonzalez-hernandez@aboutdci.com to learn more about partnering with DCI and its expert team of travel trade marketers.