11 Business Ideas for Travel Lovers

Business ideas for travel lovers

1. Traveling personal assistant

High-profile individuals, including executives and public figures, increasingly rely on personal assistants. Personal assistants usually travel with their employer whether they are going on tour, have speaking events or conduct business in other locations.

If organization, time management and problem-solving are your top skills, create your own agency. Personal assistants typically arrange travel and accommodations, manage schedules, run errands and coordinate with other staff members. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for executive secretaries and administrative assistants is expected to remain flat through 2034, but specialized personal assistant services for traveling executives remain in demand.

2. Travel blogger

If you love writing and photography, a travel blog could be your ticket to several dream destinations. Bloggers often create helpful guides, explore new cities, take interesting photos, and provide recommendations and tips. Before you take the plunge, however, understand that blogging can be tough and time-consuming. It typically takes 12 to 24 months before you make money blogging, but when you do, you’re essentially getting paid to travel the world and write about it.

If writing isn’t your expertise and you’re better with a camera, try being a travel vlogger. With YouTube, vlogging is a lucrative business. YouTube creators in the U.S. contributed approximately $55 billion to the country’s GDP in 2024, supporting 490,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Take your business on the road and create videos about traveling the world and visiting the best tourist spots.

3. Social media influencer

If you have a large online following, you can make a steady income through sponsored posts and pictures. Many brands use influencers to advertise their products and encourage followers to buy goods and services.

Some brands will even pay for social media influencers to attend their events or stay at their resorts in exchange for documenting their experience on their social media accounts. The global influencer marketing industry reached $24 billion in 2024, with travel influencers commanding between $500 to $10,000 per sponsored post depending on their follower count and engagement rates.

4. Travel agency

People want honest and helpful advice. Travel agents help people plan vacations and trips across the globe. They often have specialties for different countries or niches. If there is a country or city you love to visit, you can make recommendations to others who want to see more of the world.

You can start your own home-based travel agency through either a franchise or non-franchise agency depending on your budget and accreditation. Consider obtaining industry certifications such as the Travel Agent Proficiency (TAP) test or Certified Travel Associate (CTA) designation. Host agency fees typically range from $30 to $500 monthly, with commission splits varying from 70/30 to 90/10 in your favor.

5. Photographer

Photography is a great skill to have if you want to travel. If you start a photography business, you could travel the world and capture its beauty with your camera. You could sell these photos to publications or as art. You could also become skilled at a specific type of photography, such as candid portraits, family photography or wedding photography. People need a skilled photographer at their destination wedding, and you could be just the person for the job. Professional photographers earn a median annual wage of $40,760 according to 2023 data, with the top 10 percent earning more than $95,740.

6. Public speaker

Do you have expertise in your field and great communication skills? If so, you could become a public speaker. Speakers often travel across the country or even the world to spread their message and inspire millions. These individuals also have other streams of income, such as being a social media influencer, selling books or creating a blog about their expertise. Professional speakers can command fees ranging from $5,500 to $100,000 per engagement, with keynote speakers at major conferences earning even more.

7. Traveling event planner

Event planners organize corporate and professional events and meetings. They typically arrange catering, location selection, travel accommodations and more. If you have networking, organizational and time-management skills, you could travel the world as an event planner. Event planning worldwide could open up even more travel opportunities and larger-scale events in the long term. The meeting, convention and event planning industry is projected to grow 5 percent from 2024 to 2034.

8. Translator

If you’re fluent in multiple languages, creating a translation business could be a great way to see the world. Translators are needed in almost every industry. They assist international businesses, globe-trotting executives and high-profile individuals by translating documents, books, emails, conversations and more. If you’re not sure where to start, offer to translate menus for restaurants in your area or promotional materials for small businesses. Employment of interpreters and translators is projected to grow 2 percent from 2024 to 2034, with a median annual wage of $59,440 in 2024. [https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/interpreters-and-translators.htm]

9. Wedding planner

The job of a wedding planner is to create a stress-free wedding day. Wedding planners must be the calm in the middle of the storm and have a unique ability to soothe nerves when everything doesn’t go as planned.

While a lot of wedding planners have expertise and a network in a specific town or location, many couples opt for a destination wedding. Destination weddings represented approximately 25 percent of all weddings in 2024, with couples spending an average of $9,850 on these celebrations. These weddings can typically be even more stressful, because you must figure out how to get guests from point A to point B. You also must make accommodations over the phone rather than in person. However, this is a great opportunity to travel to beautiful places across the globe.

10. Graphic designer

As our world becomes more digital, the demand for website developers and graphic designers is growing. With design software subscriptions like Adobe Creative Cloud or platforms like Canva that offer free and paid tiers, it’s more accessible than ever to create your own graphic design business.

Market yourself as a freelance graphic designer, and assist others in creating their own branding, landing pages and promotions — a job you can do from any location. A knowledge of coding (HTML, PHP and CSS) further adds to your expertise so you can help companies develop business websites as well as design them. The median annual wage for graphic designers was $61,300 in 2024.

11. House sitter

Many people feel better about leaving for vacation with someone staying at their house to take care of their home and pets. In exchange for your services as a house sitter (feeding and walking pets, gathering mail and tending to housework), some people may pay you to stay at their homes while they travel abroad or stay at one of their multiple homes. Professional house sitters typically charge $50 to $100 per day, with rates varying by location and responsibilities. Platforms like TrustedHousesitters and HouseCarers connect sitters with homeowners worldwide. You could also create your own house sitter agency, marketing yourself as trustworthy and reputable.

What to know before starting your business

Starting a travel-oriented business requires careful planning and realistic expectations. These are essential considerations for both travel-heavy businesses and those that would mostly keep you at home.

It takes more than just passion.

Although starting your own business allows you to do something you love, that’s only a small part of the endeavor. Running your own company involves a lot of responsibilities, many of which won’t be as enjoyable as creating your product or providing your service. However, by creating a business plan, interacting with customers and marketing your company, you’ll have a greater chance of success. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20.4 percent of new businesses fail within their first year, making proper planning essential. 

Activity and growth aren’t the same.

Just because your company is changing doesn’t necessarily mean you have a growing business. Hiring new employees, adding features to your products and expanding your physical space can help you grow. But unless these steps lead to a notable increase in income, you’ve expanded only your operations; in this situation, new strategies will be necessary for true growth.

Your numbers are vital.

Data on how much your business is earning and spending are key to your success. Without working benchmarks for how well your business is performing, you might not know how to respond to potential problems until it’s too late. Small businesses that use accounting software and regularly review their financial statements are more likely to secure funding and achieve sustainable growth.

You need the right team.

Unless you can run your business entirely by yourself, you’ll need a good team behind you. You shouldn’t pick just anyone to help you run your company; hiring the wrong employee can be a costly error. Anyone you hire should have similar career goals to your own and dedicate their working hours to your success. The Department of Labor estimates that a bad hire can cost at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings.

Make time for fun.

You should always leave room for fun for both yourself and your employees. While getting a business off the ground does require a lot of dedication and effort, it shouldn’t take up your entire life. To perform their best work, most people need time to recharge, and they can’t do that while on the clock. Be mindful of a healthy work-life balance so you and your employees are ready for the next day.

Your own business offers challenges and rewards

Whether you’re starting a business to travel or gain control over your future career, the process isn’t easy. The travel industry continues to grow strongly, with global tourism spending reaching $2.36 trillion in 2024. There are plenty of obstacles that can pop up, since getting a company off the ground is one of the toughest things you can do. But that makes pulling it off all the more rewarding, and the sooner you get started, the more quickly you can reap the benefits.

Isaiah Atkins and Max Freedman contributed to this article.