Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Fleming.
Hi Alicia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
I LOVE to travel and explore new parts of the world. A friend of mine had traveled to Bora Bora on vacation and I was admiring her pictures. She said, “I forgot you love to travel as much as I do, you should look into becoming a travel agent”. She had me at the word “travel”. I talked with her and signed up to become a home-based travel agent.
I thought, this will be perfect as I am moving closer to retirement from my corporate job, and this will be perfect as a side business. I started my training and learning the business in January 2018 and of course, the first year was slow but I had some bookings. The next year, 2019, I started getting busy, and then of course 2020 COVID hit, and my business almost became non-existent. I had to work with the vendors on getting trips canceled and rebooked and refunded.
Now, I did do some traveling myself in 2020 after things started turning around and now, it’s back to business as usual and I am super, super busy. Everyone is ready to travel again and I have been doing several group bookings from family reunions to couple’s trips to sorority trips, cruises, weekend getaways, you name it, I’m booking it. In conjunction with booking for my clients, I’m trying to do some traveling myself. Probably 90% of my clients are referrals. Many of my clients, I have never met in person. I have only talked with them on the telephone or via email.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a rocky road due to us going through a pandemic but it helped me learn how to deal with the obstacles of the travel industry. Also, people automatically think that family and friends will support you when you go into business for yourself and that’s not always the case. Some of my struggles are finding the time to take continuing education classes and attend training.
By working my corporate job full-time and running my business, my time is limited and I have to prioritize.
Thankfully, my family and friends understand my goals and give up some of their time with me but I’m trying to get better about sticking to my business hours it’s hard when you love what you’re doing.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I am an independent home-based travel agent and I book vacations and getaways for my clients. I have traveled most of my life with my family and friends and now we just go to more exotic places and explore this beautiful world. I love learning about other cultures and seeing how different we do things along with the similarities. I am a self-proclaimed foodie and have been known to book a weekend getaway based on the restaurants I want to visit and enjoy
One thing I wanted to do when I started was to teach minorities that everyone can travel and my job is to find out your dream destination and help you get to that dream vacation destination. You would be surprised at the number of people who have never left the state or traveled outside the United States; blows my mind.
I started out doing female group trips and use the name Divine Destination Divas for my group trips that I travel along on. Each year, I do one large trip where I travel with a group. My first group trip was with 20 ladies to Cancun and last year, I took 20 people with me to Dubai. This year, in September we are going to Greece. The next, year, will possibly be South Africa or Egypt. My goal is to offer 2-4 of these large group trips/per year.
Travel is for everyone and I just want to teach people how to travel and do it on a budget. My Daddy always said, “You have champagne taste and beer money” and he would laugh because I made it happen. I have traveled solo, with my daughter, with my friends, with family, and with coworkers and I promise to make sure that all my clients have a great experience whether in the country or out of the country.
I believe that my clients appreciate and value my services; not to mention I give them great gifts when they book with me and refer people. My client base continues to grow with repeat clients and I have established relationships with many of them and their families. I hope to do the same for my new clients. I treat my clients how I want to be treated.
What do you think about happiness?
Being able to bless other people and help them fulfill their dreams. I have cried when I received some pictures from my clients; especially when it’s the first time someone has been somewhere that they have been dreaming of going to and never thought they would go.
My father wouldn’t set foot on a plane but when he turned 65, we took him to Hawaii and now he loves being on an airplane. He is now 77 and is almost a pro at catching flights. Being able to make that happen for him in his latter years was awesome and I hope to make all my clients feel special and that they feel like I put my heart and soul into their dream vacation.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.divinedestinationdivas.com
- Instagram: @aliciaflemingtravel or @divinedestinationdivas
- Facebook: @Divine Destination Divas
- TikTok: @divinedestinationdivas, @afleming32165, and @2trippinchixs
Image Credits
Amy Conner
