TravelManagers CEO Joe Araullo reveals how some PTMs are earning $310,000+

TravelManagers CEO Joe Araullo reveals how some PTMs are earning $310,000+
Sofia Geraghty
By Sofia Geraghty


Speak to people in the travel industry and you will often hear that travel is not a well-paying career.

There was an audible gasp of surprise, therefore, when Joe Araullo, TravelManager’s CEO, revealed at the network’s annual conference last week that the group’s top 50 PTMs earn an average of $310,000 a year in commission.

A TravelManagers PTM earning a commission of $310,000 would take home a salary of $274,926 on the TravelManagers Business Pro offering and $246,285 on the Lifestyle Plus offering.

Speaking to Travel Weekly, Araullo admitted that the figure was a lot higher than we classically see in the retail space.

“A normal retail agent is normally on a $60,000 a year base, then (depending on how good they are) they might earn $5,000 or $40,000 on top of that as a bonus”.

The number is low considering they are probably writing about $2-3million dollars of business which would equate to $200,000 or $300,000 in commission, he said.

He did acknowledge, however, the advantages employed agents have such as a guaranteed monthly salary.

So what exactly are the top-earning PTMs doing?

Aurullo said this is something TravelManagers itself also tried to figure out.

“We had our top 50 lunch this year. We brought them all in for half a day, and we did a brainstorming session. We planned to get all that feedback and share it with our research network so it could become best practice,” he said.

Interestingly, there was not actually one deciding factor that placed a PTM in the top 50.

“There wasn’t just one kind of silver bullet,” he said.

“What we found was, obviously they looked after their customers. They said ‘I deal with my customers, not quite 24/7, but I let them know I am available’.”

This attracts clients that don’t have a lot of time but have a lot of money and value someone who will save them time.

Another thing that was spoken about a lot was packaging, he continued.

A customer may be able to go online and see a certain airfare price available to the public, however, PTMs will be able to access wholesale rates due to packaging – which can translate to greater commission.

TravelManagers works with buying group CT Partners to leverage the number of agents in the network and get access to cheaper rates.

“We use the volume from CT partners to actually get better deals,” Araullo said.

The TravelManagers conference was at its best this year, with record attendees and to top it all off, next year’s event is heading to Bali!

TravelManagers wraps up ‘best conference yet’ and reveals 2025 location

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