Skift Take
Consultant Nolan Burris is a pioneer in advocating that travel agencies charge service fees. Now that the practice has become standard, Burris says many agencies have failed to realize the revenue potential of service packages and need to overhaul their approach.
For nearly 20 years, Nolan Burris, owner of Future Proof Travel Solutions and a frequent presenter at industry conferences, has been on a mission to get travel advisors to be less reliant on commissions and more reliant on service fees.
While some headway has been made, Burris is now shifting his message into high gear, insisting that many advisors are still a long way from realizing the rewards that come from playing a true consultancy role.
“The barrier has been broken with charging fees, but the reality is that most advisors are not charging anywhere near enough,” he said. “My first objective was to get people to charge fees. Now it’s to get them to do so in a way for the world we live in now.”
Burris is in the process of retooling his website,, and preparing a new series of courses and videos to be launched in the coming months. He also created the new Professional Fees training program for the American Society of Travel Advisors, which is part of the organization’s Verified Travel Advisor certification program.
Skift recently spoke with Burris to get his view on how travel advisors can take service fees to the next level.
