Deborah Summers (Source: Deborah Summers)
Travel Advisor Success Stories focus on accomplished advisors and how they achieved success. Here’s a look at Deborah Summers of Deb Summers Travel Design, an affiliate of Montecito Village Travel, a member of Virtuoso.
How did you get your start as a travel advisor?
Working in travel had always been a pipe dream of mine, and when the COVID pandemic hit, a few things became apparent.
One was the amount of joy that travel had brought into my life. COVID also shattered the illusion that we have plenty of time to make our dreams come true.
I decided there was no better time to reach out to a couple of my friends who I knew were travel advisors. One introduced me to the owner of her agency, and she took a chance on me in her Disney-focused agency. I will be forever grateful to them for that.
How did you build your business over the years?
I started with what I had the most up-to-date and intimate knowledge of, and that was Disney and theme parks. I had two small kids, and I could easily pop down to Orlando on an hour-long direct flight to check out a couple of resorts or try the new line-skipping system, but I couldn’t jet off to Thailand for a fam on two weeks’ notice, so it made sense.
I worked with a lot of clients who had never used a travel advisor before but reached out because Disney is complicated, and after their trip, they said, ‘Wow, that was so much better than we could have imagined. Do you do this for other places?’ And of course I do; Rome launched my love of travel, not Orlando.
And so my business began to grow, and as my kids got older, I was able to get back to traveling more widely. Then clients started to ask if I was a preferred partner with a luxury hotel brand, and I would have to say no.
After this happened a couple of times, I started looking into ways that I could provide more benefits to my clients through consortia and preferred partnerships. After I hit $1 million in sales in my second full year as an advisor, I started interviewing with host agencies that would allow me to provide these benefits to clients.
I still sell Disney – I jokingly call it my gateway drug to using a travel advisor – but I specialize in luxury family travel, from sun and sand on land or at sea to multi-country adventures and multigenerational celebrations.
Now in my fifth year in the industry, I’m with an amazing host, my sales have tripled since I switched, and I’m providing more value to my clients than ever.
What characteristics make you a successful advisor?
Insatiable curiosity and love of learning keep me on top of travel trends and destination nuances. I think anyone who does this for a living needs to really love travel. That passion will get you through the tough parts of this job.
I also think I have a perspective on luxury travel that people appreciate. I love introducing families to the joy of traveling well. My husband and I grew up in a working-class environment and supported each other through years of graduate school plus training (12 years post-college for him), so I know the blood, sweat and tears that go into those travel dollars, and I won’t waste them.
So, I do a lot of bridging, helping folks move from booking whatever’s cheap and clean to easing them into premium properties and discovering why it makes sense to splurge on luxury and convenience, and to treat their time together as a family as worthy of investment and the care of a professional.
What have been your greatest challenges?
Scaling and reminding myself that I cannot plan every trip that comes across my desk.
I’ve been very grateful to other advisors who share and create resources, such as workflows and automations.
I would love to get to the point where the transactional side is as automated as possible so that I can put all my time into relationship building and creative planning, which is why I love this career.
What are your greatest accomplishments?
I was pretty proud to earn Montecito Village Travel’s MVT President’s Club Elite designation in my first full year with the team, and to be in the top 3% of a $500 million company full of amazing advisors feels pretty nice.
I love turning Disney and travel haters into converts. When a grumpy gad tells me, ‘Wow, we had a really great time’ or even uses the word ‘magical,’ it’s high fives all around.
What tips can you provide advisors new to the industry?
Start with a training program, whether that’s through the American Society of Travel Agents, your consortium or host. You have no idea what you don’t know!
And try not to get caught up in the rat race; comparison is the thief of joy, and someone is always going to be selling more and doing more than you are.
Is your business bringing you both revenue and joy overall? That is the measure of success – not how your Instagram reel compares with someone else’s.
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