Travel Agency Manager Interview Questions

A Travel Agency Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of your travel agency. They run the store, manage the employees on your team (e.g., Travel Agents), negotiate deals with travel partners, and create the overall growth strategy for the agency.

Typical Travel Agency Manager skills and characteristics to look for during the job interview include:

Strategic and sales-driven mindset and the ability to see the bigger picture when creating a plan to help the travel agency reach new heights
Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills
Structured and organised way of working and the ability to create, implement, and follow clear processes
Excellent leadership skills and qualities

Interviewing a Travel Agency Manager

Ensure you find the right candidate for your Travel Agency Manager position by asking them the right type of interview questions. This will help you understand your candidate’s skills and experience much better, which means you have a better chance of hiring the best, most-qualified person for the job.

Luckily, we have done the hard work for you. Below, we list a bunch of Travel Agency Manager interview questions and answers that you can ask your candidate. These job-specific questions are designed to uncover the most useful information for the role, giving you everything you need to make an informed hiring decision.

Please note:

Our interview questions are suggestions for the earlier stages of the interview process and for candidates with average work experience. They are therefore a little more general.

How to open the job interview

For many candidates, job interviews are nerve-wracking and, quite frankly, terrifying experiences. After all, they are often desperate to impress you (the employer) and convince you that they are the right fit.

But in their state of anxiety, their nerves can quickly get the better of them. And before you know it, your questions are met with stuttering and vague answers. In many cases, the interviewee will actually know the correct answer, but they’re just too overwhelmed by nerves.

To prevent this from happening, we advise you to start the interview with some easy opening questions. Such starter questions are meant to make the candidate feel more comfortable and calm as they get the time to slowly settle into the interview.

Job Description available

See our Travel Agency Manager job description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What do you love the most about being a Travel Agency Manager?

What has your career path been so far?

Why did you decide to become a Travel Agency Manager?

What is your favourite holiday destination?

Behavioral Questions

Tell me about a time you achieved something exceptional at work or finished an exciting project.

This question gives you an idea of the Travel Agency Manager’s experience and projects they’ve worked on. Ideally, the answer should be about a collaborative effort with his team, rather than something he did completely alone.

Tell me about a time you received feedback (either positive or negative) from one of your employees. What was their feedback, did you agree, and how did you respond?

This question not only tests how they handle receiving feedback or what feedback they have received from employees. The specific example they decide to share (will they praise themselves or admit a mistake?) can say a lot about your candidate.

Tell me about a stressful time at work. What happened, and how did you handle the situation?

As the manager of a team, you have to be able to stay calm and focussed during any type of situation. This question answers how they deal with these types of situations.

Soft Skills

How do you motivate your employees to drive more sales?
The Travel Agency Manager is responsible for the growth of the agency, which means they are in charge of setting sales targets. Part of this is not only setting those targets, but encouraging and motivating employees to hit those targets.
How do you decide on targets to set, and how do you ensure they are realistic?
This question goes a bit deeper into the actual process the candidate follows when determining targets for the team. How do they decide on targets? A great answer would be if they use the SMART method of setting goals.
How do you build trust and rapport with your team members?
A true leader is trusted, respected, and well-liked by their team members. Find out how the candidate builds rapport and trust with their team.

Hard Skills

What would you say are the most important KPIs to measure in a travel agency?
The Travel Agency Manager needs to be able to determine what KPIs to measure to track the performance of the business.
How would you describe your management style?
Every manager has a different style of managing their team. Find out what theirs is and whether this is in line with your business and team.
What tools do you use to keep track of performance?
Performance tracking is an essential part of this role. Get an idea of the tools they’ve used in the past to further test their practical experience (and how much onboarding might be required).

Operational / Situational Questions

One of the members of your team has been grossly underperforming compared to the other Travel Agents in your team. What do you do?
A great manager won’t just tell the team member off. They will show empathy first and ask the team member if everything is alright/if anything is going on, before placing judgment. Based on the employee’s answer, they will then help find a solution to the problem, track the effectiveness of the solution, and see if it leads to improving the team member’s behaviour.
One of your biggest travel partners (a large hotel chain) has gone bankrupt, leaving hundreds of your customers either stranded or with cancelled holiday plans. The Travel Agency’s phone can’t stop ringing as one desperate customer calls after the other. What do you do?
This type of crisis situation can occur in this line of work. If a travel partner goes out of business, the travel agency’s team will have to (if possible) reschedule or rebook the trip for their customers. Otherwise, they will have to reimburse their customers. Find out how the candidate would handle such a situation.
Imagine it’s the end of the year and your team hasn’t just met their target: they’ve completely crushed it! What would you do in this situation?
Find out how the candidate rewards exceptional performance and behaviour. Will they offer people a bonus or take them for a nice dinner (their treat)? Or do they take it as the targets simply not being hard enough?