TORONTO — The third annual National Travel Agent Survey, an independent nationwide survey of close to 700 Canadian travel agents, was expanded for the first time to include non-hosted agents on commission and/or salary.

The survey provides insight not only into the rapidly growing home-based sector, but into the retail travel industry as a whole, says The Travel Agent Next Door.

The Travel Agent Next Door has gained access to the results of the survey and says it will be sharing it with industry partners and suppliers in the coming weeks.

This year’s survey was conducted through January 2019 by a private consulting firm with input from close to 700 travel agents from across Canada, representing a wide variety of chains, consortiums, host agencies, call centres and independents.

“Understanding home-based agents’ needs and priorities is very important to us,” said Flemming Friisdahl, Founder, The Travel Agent Next Door.

“This year’s results are very interesting because they contain a lot of new information that wasn’t known before and also reveal that many non-home based agents are considering going home based in the future – and it tells us what questions and concerns they might have before doing so. “

Key findings from the 2019 survey include …

. 79% of home-based agents are earning more for working the same hours

. 43% of non-home based agents are considering going home-based

. Agents have concerns about going home-based

. 60.5% of home-based agents said eliminating the commute was their main motivation

The survey revealed that “a very high percentage” of agents who switched from a bricks-and-mortar or a store front to home-based said they were happier and over 90% said they had a better work/life balance.