Top 12 Travel Counselor Skills to Put on Your Resume

Travel planning shifts fast. A lively mix of people skills, tidy workflows, and sharp tools shows you can craft trips that feel effortless—and rescue them when plans wobble. These strengths pop on a resume and carry weight when clients need help now, not later.

Travel Counselor Skills

1. Amadeus
2. Sabre
3. Galileo
4. Worldspan
5. Multilingual
6. Itinerary Planning
7. Customer Service
8. CRM Software
9. Negotiation
10. Cultural Awareness
11. Time Management
12. Problem-Solving

1. Amadeus

Amadeus is a global travel platform and reservation system used to shop and book flights, hotels, rail, cars, and ancillaries, giving counselors real-time inventory and pricing across suppliers.

Why It's Important

It’s a single, efficient cockpit for searching smart, booking cleanly, and servicing changes without fuss—so clients get timely options, sharper fares, and tailored itineraries.

How to Improve Amadeus Skills

Level up by mixing formal learning with repetition and community:

1. Take official courses through Amadeus Learning Universe to build from core commands to advanced workflows.
2. Practice daily in Amadeus Selling Platform Connect; repetition cements formats and speed.
3. Track updates via release notes and product bulletins; new fares, NDC content, and tools drop often.
4. Swap tips with peers in industry groups and user communities.
5. Earn certification to validate skill and signal credibility to employers.

How to Display Amadeus Skills on Your Resume

2. Sabre

Sabre is a global travel system providing shopping, booking, and servicing tools for air, hotel, and car, plus mid- and back-office connections used by agencies and TMCs.

Why It's Important

Broad content, fast pricing, strong reissue/change support—Sabre helps counselors build accurate, flexible itineraries at speed.

How to Improve Sabre Skills

1. Enroll in official training and progress to advanced fare quoting, exchanges, and automation.
2. Work in Sabre Red regularly; muscle memory matters.
3. Review product notes for new features and workflow tweaks.
4. Study quick-reference guides and keep your own cheat sheets.
5. Watch scenario-based demos and replicate them in a practice environment.

How to Display Sabre Skills on Your Resume

3. Galileo

Galileo is a Travelport GDS that provides real-time access to air, hotel, and car content and supports fare shopping, ticketing, and itinerary management inside modern agency workstations.

Why It's Important

It expands your reach to varied supplier inventories and fares, supports exchanges, and integrates with downstream tools for reporting and quality control—key for consistent client service.

How to Improve Galileo Skills

1. Master native entries and shortcuts to shave seconds off every task.
2. Train in advanced topics through Travelport learning paths: complex pricing, ticketing, and queues.
3. Use Smartpoint/Travelport+ enhancements like macros, plugins, and scripts to automate repetitive actions.
4. Keep current with feature releases and airline content changes, including NDC additions.
5. Trade tips in user communities; adopt proven workflows from power users.

How to Display Galileo Skills on Your Resume

4. Worldspan

Worldspan, part of Travelport, is a GDS used to shop, book, and service air, hotel, and car content with robust pricing and automation options.

Why It's Important

It delivers wide supplier access with tools for efficient itinerary building, ticketing, and post-ticket changes—vital for high-volume counselors.

How to Improve Worldspan Skills

1. Strengthen fundamentals with core command sets and pricing logic.
2. Advance to Travelport+ workflows and Smartpoint features that streamline servicing.
3. Practice in a non-billing environment to rehearse exchanges, refunds, and schedule-change handling.
4. Leverage reference guides for formats and edge-case scenarios.
5. Work queues deliberately with consistent naming and cleanup habits.

How to Display Worldspan Skills on Your Resume

5. Multilingual

Being multilingual means you can understand, speak, and often write in more than one language—letting you advise clients, read supplier terms, and smooth issues without translation delays.

Why It's Important

Clear communication reduces mistakes, unlocks local options, and builds trust. Clients feel seen when you speak their language.

How to Improve Multilingual Skills

1. Daily practice with structured apps or spaced-repetition study.
2. Language exchanges with native speakers; short, frequent sessions beat marathons.
3. Immersion at home: podcasts, films, menus, news in the target language.
4. Professional courses aimed at travel, hospitality, and service vocabulary.
5. Workplace practice via lunch-and-learn groups or bilingual client calls.

How to Display Multilingual Skills on Your Resume

6. Itinerary Planning

Itinerary planning is the craft of sequencing transport, stays, activities, and buffers so the trip flows—aligned to budget, pace, and what the traveler actually loves.

Why It's Important

Good plans feel effortless. They save time, dodge crowds, and make room for the moments clients remember.

How to Improve Itinerary Planning Skills

1. Interview deeply: goals, constraints, non-negotiables, past likes, travel style.
2. Research broadly with destination guides, local calendars, and seasonal nuances.
3. Map logistics: time-and-distance reality checks using multi-modal routing tools.
4. Use itinerary builders to centralize docs, confirmations, and shareable mobile views.
5. Monitor advisories and entry rules from official sources; keep a quick-update checklist.
6. Personalize with interest-based picks and flexible pockets for serendipity.
7. Collect post-trip feedback and fold lessons into templates.

How to Display Itinerary Planning Skills on Your Resume

7. Customer Service

Customer service for a Travel Counselor covers pre-trip discovery, booking support, real-time problem solving, and post-trip follow-up—start to finish care.

Why It's Important

Trust wins repeat business. Reliable, empathetic help turns disruptions into loyalty.

How to Improve Customer Service Skills

1. Practice active listening and confirm understanding in your own words.
2. Document preferences in a CRM so every interaction builds on the last.
3. Tighten response times with templates, triage, and clear SLAs.
4. Educate clients with concise guides, FAQs, and pre-trip checklists.
5. Ask for feedback and act on patterns, not just one-offs.
6. Train continuously on destinations, disruption handling, and de-escalation.

How to Display Customer Service Skills on Your Resume

8. CRM Software

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools help track contacts, preferences, quotes, bookings, and follow-ups—linking communication with pipeline and service tasks.

Why It's Important

Centralized history enables tailored suggestions, fewer repeats, and smooth handoffs. It’s the memory you can trust.

How to Improve CRM Software Skills

1. Clean data habits: standardized fields, tags, and naming conventions.
2. Automate routine nudges—reminders, check-ins, payment prompts.
3. Integrate with booking, email, and task tools to cut duplicate entry.
4. Use analytics to spot top clients, repeat routes, and upsell moments.
5. Go mobile so updates and notes happen in the moment, not later.
6. Mind security: role-based access, MFA, and privacy-by-default.

How to Display CRM Software Skills on Your Resume

9. Negotiation

Negotiation means striking terms with airlines, hotels, DMCs, and tour operators that fit client goals—price, perks, flexibility—without burning relationships.

Why It's Important

Better value, better terms, fewer surprises. Clients notice when you win them wiggle room.

How to Improve Negotiation Skills

1. Prep with numbers: market rates, demand windows, comps, and your walk-away point (BATNA).
2. Build rapport and trade variables, not just rate: upgrades, breakfast, late checkout, waiver flexibility.
3. Listen for constraints and solve for them; creativity beats hardball.
4. Aim for repeatability: frameworks and templates for common deal shapes.
5. Practice with role-plays; review outcomes and refine your playbook.

How to Display Negotiation Skills on Your Resume

10. Cultural Awareness

Cultural awareness is reading the room across borders—customs, etiquette, pace, and taboos—so guidance lands respectfully and trips unfold smoothly.

Why It's Important

It prevents missteps, enriches experiences, and earns trust with both clients and local partners.

How to Improve Cultural Awareness Skills

1. Research destinations: social norms, holidays, tipping, dress, and greetings.
2. Take intercultural courses and keep notes by region for quick reference.
3. Engage locals via community groups and professional networks.
4. Travel when possible and debrief what surprised you.
5. Capture client feedback about cultural moments—good and awkward—and adjust advice.

How to Display Cultural Awareness Skills on Your Resume

11. Time Management

Time management is the discipline of prioritizing, scheduling, and batching work so every client gets timely, focused attention.

Why It's Important

Fast answers, fewer dropped balls, calmer days. It shows up in client satisfaction scores.

How to Improve Time Management Skills

1. Prioritize with intent using an urgency/importance matrix and daily top 3.
2. Block your calendar for quoting, ticketing, admin, and learning—protect the blocks.
3. Batch tasks like confirmations and follow-ups to reduce context switching.
4. Automate reminders for payments, visas, check-ins, and schedule checks.
5. Set boundaries and publish response windows; stick to them.

How to Display Time Management Skills on Your Resume

12. Problem-Solving

Problem-solving is diagnosing the real issue—missed connection, weather, system error, overbooking—and producing practical, fast alternatives clients can accept.

Why It's Important

Trips rarely go perfectly. Calm, creative fixes turn crises into stories clients retell—in your favor.

How to Improve Problem-Solving Skills

1. Clarify the problem and constraints before acting; restate to confirm.
2. Pre-plan playbooks for common disruptions: cancellations, strikes, schedule changes.
3. Think in options: same day, next day, alternate airports, reroutes, partial refunds.
4. Communicate plainly with timelines, trade-offs, and costs.
5. Debrief after incidents; log what worked and update checklists.

How to Display Problem-Solving Skills on Your Resume