Meet Dominique Barba | Travel Agency Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dominique Barba and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dominique, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
After a 20 year break, I wanted to get back into the travel industry. When researching the best way to go about it, I realized things had changed quite a bit from 20 years ago! Brick and mortar agencies were slim, and many travel agents were home based and owning their agenices. This fit where I was at with my life as my kids had just started to be in school all day as kindergarden & 1st graders. As a single mom, I wanted to have the flexibility to build a career AND be a Mom at the same time. I quickly realized I thrived in an entrepreneurship situation. I had a lot of motivation to make the flexible schedule work while earning money for my family.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Starting your own business comes with a lot of challenges. For a travel agent, I would say getting started and building your client list is the most challenging. For me, training was a big part of my start and I did as much I could get my hands on. The training consisted of becoming familiar with the travel products I was selling so I could best match my clients needs to the right fit. I also did training on sales and service so I could keep my clients coming back. It’s a slow build and takes lots of patience and hard work. But, pushing through that is something I’m proud of.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would start in Tucson with a night at Tanque Verde Horse Ranch. Even without a horse back ride, it’s a very peaceful place with some gorgeous AZ scenery. Then, we would spend a night at the Sheraton Wild Horse to indulge in the Aji spa, walk around the grounds, spend time in the casino & outlet mall, and visit Rawhide. After that, it would be a couple of nights in Scottsdale at one of their premier resorts such as the JW or Princess where we would indulge in more spa treatments and time at the pool. The week would finish with a road trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon for hiking and time in nature.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would say my friends and family were very supportive of my entrepreneurship.

Website: https://www.BlissTravelService.com

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