Fora Targets the Travel Agent Skills Gap
Photo Credit: Woman working with laptop. Source: Andrew Neel, Unsplash Andrew Neel, Unsplash / Andrew Neel, Unsplash
Skift Take
Fora touts itself as a modern travel agency giving individuals, even those with zero experience, the opportunity to become a travel advisor while keeping their day job. But the potential risk has seen it up its game from a free-to-join model to a quarterly subscription offering, with in-house tech, tools and advanced training.
Deploying travel advisors with zero travel booking experience sounds like a bad idea. But travel agency Fora believes it is leveling the playing field for individuals passionate about travel to earn extra income by planning and booking trips.
Skift previously reported on Fora's ambitions to "easily recruit some 100 000" newbies to the industry after raising a total of $18.5 million in venture funding, notably $13.5 million in Series A funding in August last year.
Started as a free-to-join model, the company claims it has seen plenty of people wanting to test travel booking as a potential career change, with a 40,000-strong waiting list.
Since October last year, it has charged advisors a quarterly fee of $49 to join. A key difference with Fora is that travel advisors can join, while still keeping their main job.
Speaking to Skift about the questionable skills gap, as "97 percent of Fora's 5
