michelle cartwright travel agent

Destinations by Design ™

MICHELE CARTWRIGHT, CTA, MCC, VTA

President and Owner Senior Travel Advisor

Destinations by Design is the dream turned reality travel agency founded in 2013 by Michele. As an experienced owner and entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the leisure, travel, and tourism industry, Michele is committed to professional and friendly customer service to provide clients with exceptional travel experiences - world wide. 

Certified Travel Associate (CTA)

Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)

Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC)

ASTA Verified Travel Advisor (VTA)

The Travel Institute Professional Educators Program (PEP)

European Travel Forum Selected Recipient 2023

Vicki's Coffee Talk Featured Guest April 2023

MAG Award Recipient 2021

Family Travel Forum SELECT Recipient 2020

European Travel Forum SELECT Recipient 2019

Cancun Travel Forum SELECT Recipient 2019

Romance Travel Forum SELECT Recipient 2019

Las Vegas Travel Forum SELECT Recipient 2019

CruiseWorld STAR Recipient 2017

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The certification(s) earned and displayed identify a graduate of The Travel Institute who has demonstrated expertise and an ongoing commitment to their career, consumers, and the travel industry.

As the founder and president of Destinations by Design, Michele is committed to professional and friendly customer service to provide clients with exceptional travel experiences. She also serves as an industry mentor to elevate the travel advisor to their highest potential.

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Agent Interview: Michele Cartwright – On Growing Genuine Relationships in the Business

Perspective and Lessons Learned through the COVID-19 Pandemic as a Travel Professional

An Interview by Andy Ogg, CTIE , Co-Owner – Travel Professional News

First off, thank you very much for the time today and joining our fantastic Travel Professional NEWS readers!

Would you mind sharing a bit about yourself and your Agency with our readers? Where are you located? How did you become a Travel Professional?

I am a science educator by trade turned stay at home mom who has always loved travel. The teacher in me wanted to teach people about the world, while the mom in me wanted families to EXPERIENCE it. That passion led me to “book” travel for friends and family prior to joining the industry. I officially joined the industry as an independent contractor in January 2013 after gaining the courage to jump into the business without any formal travel agent training.

How long have you been in the travel industry? How long have you been running your Agency? Do you work with a Host Agency? If so, which Host Agency?

Joining Travel Planners International was one of the first initiatives I took to make my dream a reality. They gave me the tools I needed to book travel, and, as they continued to grow and improve, so did my business. I doubled my sales each year through a lot of hard work, and found TPIs commitment to continuous improvement with the Host model to further ignite my passion and success. Their positive energy only fueled me to reach Platinum status within a few years of joining.

2020 started off with a bang with WAVE season followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. What a year it has been already! Can you share a bit about how the recent situation has affected your business?

WOW! I had the best WAVE season ever in 2020, reaching sales goals in two months that exceeded my sales for previous YEARS! While the excitement lasted into the first part of March, it was soon apparent the COVID-19 pandemic would wreak havoc in our industry. Initially, two bookings were cancelled, then another, and another… until my book of business for 2020 looks desperate and lonely. Thankfully, I do have many clients who are postponing instead of canceling, and I expect business to regain strength once COVID-19 releases it’s grip on the world’s health.

With cancellations (hopefully) behind you, how are you spending your time during this time of Travel Bans and “stay at home” warnings?

We must use our time wisely while focusing on strengthening our businesses and staying mentally and physically healthy. I recently founded The Savvy Advisor, a complimentary and for fee mentoring service, and have found using my time to work with my colleagues through this platform an incredible opportunity during my time at home. Recently, I added a group Facebook page for colleagues to share tips, educational opportunities, and more. Helping each other with our businesses, especially during challenging times, will only prove to strengthen our industry.

As an experienced Travel Professional, do you have any advice or tips for other Travel Professionals during this challenging time?

Don’t quit.

The advice we’re hearing is to work on projects we otherwise haven’t had time to do such as streamlining our businesses, creating social media content, working on continuing education, etc. I’d like to add it’s a wonderful time to reach out to colleagues and clients. Checking in on people makes everyone feel a little better about themselves while growing genuine relationships in the business.

We know that in this Industry, we are stronger together and it has been shown time and time again through the COVID-19 pandemic. Can you share a few suppliers / partners that have truly helped you and your clients in this challenging time?

The cruise lines have done a phenomenal job at not only protecting our mutual clients, but travel advisors by protecting commissions on original booking and future bookings. I have to give kudos to the many suppliers who stepped up to eliminate cancellation and change fees, offered full refunds despite policies, and more. It’s wonderful seeing many of our partners working for the good of the community.

Through these times, we all learn a lot about ourselves and our businesses, can you share a few things that you’ve learned through this current pandemic either personally, professionally or both?

I’ve learned that the COVID-19 situation has not only affected newcomers in the industry, but large corporations. Truly, many of us have gone from making a living wage to paying commission recalls out of pocket. Successful professionals I look up to are hurting, and I never thought I would see that. Corona does not discriminate.

It’s during the most difficult and darkest times that our true colors come out, and I love to see that the people I surround myself with, virtually, of course, are so much stronger than we give ourselves credit for. We won’t only survive, we will thrive once this is over.

Before we conclude, I personally want to thank you for your time and information shared today. We appreciate your involvement in our publication!

Thank YOU! I appreciate the opportunity, and your efforts to the travel community.

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Video Transcript

Michelle Cartwright – Travel Agent 00:16 I am Michelle Cartwright, and I just celebrated my sixth year selling travel.

Michelle Ferrand – Interviewer 00:20 Why did you take the leap of faith into the industry?

Michelle Cartwright – Travel Agent 00:25 Because my parents and husband believed in me. I had this passion to share my knowledge with friends and family, especially in regards to cruising.

Effie Walthall – Travel Agent 00:36 I saw this ad in the newspaper that said, ‘Do you like to travel? Do you like to make money?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes!I like all those things.’ And I was only in my 20s. So I love that, you know.

Valerie Gosset – Travel Agent 00:45 I always had a love for travel, and helping people have the very best experience. And what I love to do is take care of people.

Kirsten Brown – Travel Agent 00:54 I’ve been a lot of places, and I wanted to have the opportunity to take other people where I’ve been.

Penny Leichner – Travel Agent 01:00 We love to travel.

Steve Leichner – Travel Agent 01:01 We travel all the time, we travel all over and we love talking about travel.

Theresa Chu Bermudez – Travel Agent 01:05 It seemed like the perfect time for me to just dive in and do what I loved.

Mark Burgess – Travel Agent 01:09 Complement to the business which I was already in, which was DJing weddings. So my job was to help people have fun there, and it just seemed like a natural extension to plan the honeymoon.

Taheera Jones – Travel Agent 01:17 Because I was already planning travel for friends and family anyway, and so I decided to start making money at it.

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Gerald Ash – Travel Agent 01:22 A change in life allowed me to get into something different, and I had time to build slowly, so it worked out for me.

Tony Gagliano, Sr. – Founder & Owner 01:33 Look what happened.

Michelle Ferrand – Interviewer 01:35 A lot. A lot has happened. What’s been the most challenging obstacle you’ve had in business?

Tony Gagliano, Sr. – Founder & Owner 01:43 Money. Financial situations. When you start out as an entrepreneur, the banks don’t believe you. I’ll go back, way back, when I had an interview with one of our biggest suppliers. I went to him and try to present the idea of putting what I had is what a host agency might be looking to be. He told me I was crazy, it would never work.

Joe Abels. He was the chief editor of the Florida Travel Agent Magazine, I believe it was at the time. And I guess the he and the magazine was the bibles of the industry, and when he told me it was not possible, and I look back and I’m saying to myself, ‘If the if the insurance industry is doing what I want to do, this will work as well.’ But he told me it was impossible.

When somebody tells me it’s impossible, then, then, you know, the challenge then comes to ‘How do I make it happen, and without money?’ Thanks to my wife and her her ability stand behind me, we went to the banks, and convinced them that I had a great idea. And for a period of time, they loaned us money. And fortunately we were able to pay it back. And from month-to-month we’ve moved forward and gained a position in the industry and started see competitors come into the industry. And then we started to up our game and put the competitors out of business.

Marietta Gagliano – Founder & Owner 03:44 You gotta be willing to work weekends. Saturday, Sunday, ’til late at night. And just keep chugging along. You have to do it and go, ‘You vacuum the offices, and you pick up the garbage.’ And you do all that stuff, too, and you don’t hire anyone yet until you you can hire people to do that kind of stuff.

Michelle Ferrand – Interviewer 04:07 What advice do you have to agents that are starting their own business?

Tony Gagliano, Sr. – Founder & Owner 04:17 Be steadfast. Have confidence in yourself. Be professional. Don’t quit. It’s, it’s easy to quit. It’s so easy to walk away. Walking away is the easiest thing to do. It’s like burying your head in sand. Just walking away, say ‘I give up.’

There’s many nights Marietta and I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Egg salad sandwiches. Many of times we said ‘Another week. Another week. Another week. We’ll make it.’ And on it went. So you know, those challenges were tough because I had to put it out personally, but, but my wife stood right by me because she owned part of that.

Tony Gagliano, Jr. – COO/Executive VP 05:25 As all of you know so very well, starting something new is not for the weak or the shy. You have to commit and go for it without fear or hesitation. Mom and Dad, thank you for taking that leap of faith and building something we can all be proud to serve.

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