It started with a trip to the U.K. and Ireland, followed by backpacking through Italy for 10 days. Australia came next and quickly turned into a life-defining year abroad. By the third trip, it was obvious to Claire Burt that she was bitten by the tourism bug. But it wasn’t until she returned to Canada that Claire considered a tourism industry career and enrolled in Centennial College’s Tourism program. Even then, the summer before the program started, she squeezed in one more trip to Peru. Claire’s clear passion for travel, combined with her Centennial College education, has resulted in a unique career.
“Through the (Tourism courses), I was able to sharpen my advocacy and communication skills,” says Claire, the owner of Your Travel Analyst, a business through which she works as a travel coach and research specialist. “In hindsight, having had the opportunity to practice these skills has helped me establish an excellent foundation for my business.”
Much like a career or life coach, a travel coach helps travellers to identify the emotional and personal reasons they want to travel so they can curate their ideal trip. Claire works with tourism industry businesses such as host agencies, travel clubs, travel planning companies, and tourism educators, including learning and development teams. She helps her clients achieve their business goals, especially ones pertaining to transformational or responsible travel.
“The skills I learned at Centennial, particularly the concepts around tourism operations, are something I draw upon in my interactions with my clients,” says Claire, who hosts webinars; researches and writes for eBooks, courses, and presentations; and facilitates staff training programs. “Because I work with businesses, it is important that I am familiar with and can speak their language so I can understand their pain points and how to resolve them.”
Beyond benefitting from Centennial’s hands-on Tourism courses and curriculum, which includes a work-integrated learning experience, Claire says the College fosters a peer-to-peer and peer-to-teacher support system. This, she says, helped her to connect with like-minded peers and professors who were sympathetic to students’ challenges and encouraged their individual goals and career paths.
“(My peers and I) came to the program with either extensive travel experience, a curiosity for the industry, or both,” says Claire. “Being part of a program that aligned a shared passion as well as academics allowed us to cultivate great relationships with each other. That is a really unique and special experience that doesn’t exist in too many industries. Our professors also had modern industry experience, which resulted in a really neat mentorship dynamic between themselves and us students.”
When she graduated in 2018, Claire began her career in the tourism industry as a corporate travel counsellor before becoming travel research freelancer and then launching Your Travel Analyst in June 2021. Claire’s travel coach business resulted from a desire to bridge the gap between practical industry necessities and the way travel enhances the human experience.
“Travel is inherently powerful in its ability to help us grow as individuals, forge meaningful connections, and be a global force for good,” she says. “As changes in traveller demands reflect a desire for conscious and intentional experiences, more and more work opportunities are coming about in this space. It is a really exciting and pivotal time to be in the industry.”
Written By: Izabela Shubair