Once dismissed as “hobbyists”, MTA – Mobile Travel Agents has proven the doubters spectacularly wrong. As the company marks its 25th anniversary (today, to be precise), nearly 100 of its advisors earn over $600,000 a year, with some even hitting $800,000, according to MTA Co-Managing Director, Owner and travel industry legend Karen Merricks. Not bad for a so-called side hustle.
“Some of them were earning $25,000 a year, working full-time in a retail agency. Then, after joining MTA, many quickly realised $100-150,000 – and then that income exploded over the years… depending on their time and lifestyle,” Merricks tells me in an interview on the eve of the big occasion.
“Our platinum agents – there are now over 90 of them – are earning really big incomes.”
When reflecting on the birth and rise of MTA – Mobile Travel Agents, Merricks looks back like one would on the growth of a family – with much pride.
“It’s been a quarter of a century, but it seems like yesterday when we launched,” she remarks.
“We set out to have a company that values people and family… and I feel we’ve created that – a business that upholds family values and a company full of the most amazing people.”
It’s a family affair
At the 2024 MTA – Mobile Travel Agents national conference in Fiji, I was struck by the genuine warmth and camaraderie within the organisation – it felt like one big travel family. It’s an atmosphere I expect will endure.
“We really love being together and catching up. I am so proud of MTA and the people we have around us,” Karen explains.
“All of our head office team, our brilliant advisors and our supplier connections.”
With Merricks experiencing a difficult few months late last year on a personal level (Karen lost her beloved sister to bowel cancer in 2024), she stresses how important it is to “hold those we love close and cherish our time together”.
“I don’t feel business should be any different,” Merricks says.
“It’s about caring support and enjoying the ups and downs of life.”
MTA for mums
Merricks, together with husband and business partner Roy, started MTA as a way to help women – especially those with children – undertake a more fulfilling journey in the travel industry. They also wanted to support women in rejoining the workforce. And it stemmed from Karen’s own experiences.
“Flexible hours was a big issue. You don’t want to miss out on kids’ events, like Christmas plays and sports carnivals,” Karen says.
“So I needed access remotely to my own GDS system, not through the office where I had to keep calling to go and do my work, which was a half-hour drive for me just to go and book a domestic ticket. That just wasn’t workable.
“I wanted to be able to work from a home office; do my work when I wanted… and then be able to get the kids and work again in the evening because it suited me to do that.
“So we talked about it at length. And then Roy, said, ‘well, if you want it, everyone wants it’.”
It turns out a lot of travel professionals actually did. But it wasn’t simple, as Roy puts it, “because none of the systems were there”.
“Only about a third of travel agents even had an email!” Roy explains, about the lack of digital systems that we now take for granted.
After doing their homework on remote set-ups already in existence in places like the US, they were ready to go on 18 February 2000.
True to its family-oriented ethos, even the Merricks’ children Ben and Sara got involved in the business from the start – especially on the digital side of things.
“It was controversial, but once we launched, we just knew it was going to work,” Karen says.
Unless you call earning big money controversial, it’s hardly contentious any more.
“And these guys [members] are happy because they have freedom, they have flexibility; they work around their families.”
Long may that happiness continue. Happy birthday MTA – Mobile Travel Agents!
Here are eight things we learned at MTA – Mobile Travel Agents’ record 2024 conference, its first national conference in four years and the first to take place overseas.
