Discover practical side hustles you can run from anywhere in the world
The travel industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade, creating countless opportunities for professionals seeking flexible, family-friendly and location free career paths. Whether you’re a parent looking to transition into a new field, someone seeking better work-life balance, or simply passionate about travel and hospitality, there are numerous roles within the travel sector that accommodate family life while offering meaningful income potential.
The beauty of working in the travel industry lies in its diversity and adaptability. Many positions offer remote work options, flexible scheduling, and the opportunity to build a business around your family’s needs rather than the other way around. From leveraging your own property to sharing your passion for exploration through writing, these seven career paths prove that you don’t have to choose between professional success and family priorities.
In this blog post we’re going to look at 8 opportunities that can give you an income of at least $1,000+ each month and which can grow into a sustainable part-time or full-time business.
- Short-term vacation rental host.
- Travel writer.
- Travel blogger.
- Travel Agent.
- Tour Operator
- Website Designer
- Property Management
- Affiliate Marketing
1. Short-Term Vacation Rental Host
Becoming a short-term vacation rental host represents one of the most accessible entry points into the travel industry. With platforms like Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com, property owners can transform spare rooms, basement apartments, or entire properties into income-generating assets.
This role offers exceptional flexibility for families. You control your calendar, choosing when to accept guests based on your family’s schedule. Many hosts find they can earn substantial income by renting their space during peak travel seasons while keeping it available for family use during important times like holidays or school breaks.
The day-to-day responsibilities include guest communication, coordinating check-ins and check-outs, maintaining property cleanliness (via a professional cleaning team) and ensuring guest satisfaction. These tasks can often be managed around family schedules, with many activities occurring during school hours or after children’s bedtime. For example, changeover cleans can easily be completed within a 10am to 3pm window.
Success in vacation rental hosting requires attention to detail, strong communication skills, and a genuine desire to provide hospitality. The initial investment varies depending on your property situation, but many hosts start with minimal upfront costs by utilizing existing furnishings and gradually upgrading their offerings based on guest feedback and revenue growth.
The earning potential is significant, with successful hosts in popular destinations generating thousands of dollars monthly. Even those in smaller markets can create meaningful supplemental income while maintaining their primary family focus.
2. Travel Writer
Travel writing offers an ideal blend of creativity, flexibility, and wanderlust satisfaction. This career path allows you to share experiences, insights, and recommendations while working from virtually anywhere with an internet connection. While writing does require some degree of literacy, with the help of AI and Grammarly type software, anyone can produce a polished piece of writing worthy of publication.
Family life and travel writing complement each other beautifully. Many successful travel writers incorporate family experiences into their work, creating content about family-friendly destinations, traveling with children, or balancing adventure with parental responsibilities. This authentic perspective often resonates strongly with readers facing similar life circumstances.
The work involves researching destinations, crafting engaging articles, and building relationships with editors and publications. Assignments might include destination guides, hotel reviews, cultural explorations, or practical travel advice. Many travel writers work across multiple niches, from luxury travel to budget backpacking, adventure tourism to culinary experiences.
Building a portfolio requires dedication and patience, but the barriers to entry are relatively low. Start by creating sample articles about places you’ve visited, even if they’re local destinations. Many writers begin by contributing to smaller publications or travel blogs before advancing to major magazines and websites.
Income varies widely, from modest freelance fees to substantial contracts with major publications. Experienced travel writers often diversify their income through guidebook writing, copywriting for tourism boards, and creating content for travel companies.
3. Travel Blogger
Travel blogging represents the entrepreneurial side of travel writing, offering complete creative control and unlimited income potential. Unlike traditional travel writing, blogging allows you to build your own brand, develop direct relationships with your audience, and create multiple revenue streams.
The family-friendly nature of travel blogging lies in its flexibility and scalability. You can start small, perhaps documenting local family adventures or sharing travel tips learned through personal experience. As your audience grows, opportunities for monetization expand through advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and product sales.
Successful travel blogging requires consistency, authentic voice, and strategic thinking about content creation and audience development. Technical skills in website management, social media marketing, and basic SEO are beneficial but can be learned over time.
Many family travel bloggers find their niche by focusing on specific aspects of travelling with children, such as educational travel, budget family vacations, or accessibility considerations. This specialized approach often leads to stronger reader loyalty and better monetization opportunities than generic travel content.
The income timeline for blogging is typically longer than traditional employment, with most successful bloggers taking 12-24 months to generate significant revenue. However, the potential for passive income and business growth makes this an attractive long-term career option for many people with children.
4. Travel Agent
Despite predictions about the demise of travel agents, the profession has evolved and thrived in the digital age. Modern location independent travel agents provide specialized expertise, personalized service, and valuable time-saving services that many travelers gladly pay for, especially when planning complex trips or special occasions.
Travel agents enjoy considerable schedule flexibility, with many working from home offices and setting their own hours. This arrangement works well for parents who need to be available for school events, sick days, or family emergencies. The role combines customer service, sales, and logistics coordination in ways that can be both challenging and rewarding.
Specialization is key to success in modern travel agency work. Some agents focus on specific destinations, travel styles (luxury, adventure, family), or demographics (seniors, honeymooners, corporate travel). This expertise allows agents to command higher fees and build loyal client bases.
The profession requires certification and ongoing education to maintain industry credentials and stay current with destination knowledge, booking systems, and travel regulations. Many agents affiliate with host agencies that provide training, booking tools, and industry support in exchange for commission splits.
Income potential varies significantly based on specialization, client base, and business model. Successful agents often earn substantial commissions on high-value bookings while building repeat business through exceptional service and expertise. As a bonus, most agents enjoy unlimited discounted travel and perks for themselves and their friends and family.
If you’re interested in becoming an independent travel agent, contact me to find out how you can get started in this exciting industry at a very affordable rate and without it costing you a fortune or tying you in to any contracts.
5. Tour Operator
Creating and operating tours represents an exciting entrepreneurial opportunity within the travel industry. Tour operators design, organize, and execute travel experiences for groups, ranging from local walking tours, sport specific tours to international adventures.
This role offers tremendous creative freedom and the satisfaction of creating memorable experiences for travellers. Family considerations are accommodated through careful tour scheduling, with many operators running seasonal businesses or focusing on specific types of tours that align with their lifestyle preferences.
Tour operators handle everything from itinerary development and vendor relationships to marketing and customer service. Successful operators often specialize in particular types of experiences, such as food tours, historical walks, outdoor adventures, or cultural immersions.
Starting a tour operation requires destination knowledge, organizational skills, and often specific certifications or licenses depending on your location and tour type. Initial investment varies but can be managed by starting small with walking tours or partnering with existing venues and service providers, such as independent travel agents mentioned above.
The business model allows for significant scalability, from part-time local tours to full-scale international operations. Many operators begin with one signature tour and expand their offerings based on customer demand and market opportunities.
6. Website Designer
The travel industry’s digital transformation has created enormous demand for skilled website designers who understand the unique needs of hospitality and tourism businesses. This technical career path offers excellent work-life balance potential through remote work opportunities and project-based scheduling.
Website design for travel businesses requires understanding both technical skills and industry-specific needs like booking systems, photo galleries, mobile optimization, and search engine visibility. Designers often work with hotels, tour operators, travel agencies, and destination marketing organizations.
The learning curve for website design has become more manageable with modern tools and platforms. Many successful designers start with website builders like WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix before advancing to custom coding solutions. Online courses, tutorials, and certification programs provide accessible paths to developing professional-level skills.
Project-based work allows designers to balance family commitments with professional responsibilities. Many find they can manage client relationships and project timelines around school schedules and family activities, often working during evening hours or while children are occupied with other activities.
Income potential is strong, with experienced designers commanding premium rates for specialized travel industry expertise. The recurring nature of website maintenance and updates provides ongoing revenue streams beyond initial design projects. Find out how we can help you train as a WordPress designer here. Get started from as little as £197.00 on our training plan.
7. Property Management
Property management for vacation rentals and hospitality businesses offer a service-based career path that combines customer service, operations management, and local market expertise. This role has grown significantly with the expansion of short-term rental markets and the increasing complexity of managing multiple properties.
Property managers handle day-to-day operations for property owners who prefer to remain hands-off or lack local presence. Responsibilities include guest communication, maintenance coordination, liaison with cleaning teams, pricing optimization, and marketing management.
The family-friendly aspects include flexible scheduling, local focus that minimizes travel, and the ability to build a service business gradually. Many property managers start by helping friends or neighbours with their rental properties before expanding into full-service businesses.
Success requires strong organizational skills, local knowledge, and the ability to handle multiple properties and clients simultaneously. Technology tools for property management have made the role more efficient, allowing managers to handle larger portfolios while maintaining quality service.
Income is typically based on percentage of rental revenue, creating alignment between manager and property owner interests. Successful property managers in active vacation rental markets can build substantial businesses managing dozens of properties.
8. Affiliate Marketing
For entrepreneurs in the travel industry, affiliate marketing presents a compelling opportunity to generate revenue while building authentic relationships with their audience. This performance-based marketing strategy offers unique advantages that align perfectly with the travel niche’s dynamic nature.
Low Barrier to Entry
Unlike traditional travel businesses that can require upfront investment in inventory or infrastructure, affiliate marketing allows entrepreneurs to start with minimal capital. You can begin promoting travel products and services immediately, from hotel bookings to travel gear, without the financial risks associated with holding inventory or managing complex logistics.
Diverse Revenue Streams
The travel industry offers countless affiliate opportunities across multiple verticals. Entrepreneurs can promote accommodation platforms, flight booking sites, travel insurance, luggage brands, photography equipment, and destination experiences. This diversity creates multiple income streams, reducing dependency on any single revenue source and providing stability during seasonal fluctuations.
Scalability and Flexibility
Affiliate marketing scales with your audience growth. As your travel blog, social media presence, or email list expands, so does your earning potential. The flexibility to work from anywhere aligns perfectly with the travel lifestyle many entrepreneurs seek, allowing you to test and promote products while exploring new destinations.
Trust-Based Monetization
Travel decisions are deeply personal and trust-driven. Affiliate marketing enables you to monetize your expertise and recommendations authentically. When you share genuine experiences with travel products or services, your audience values these insights, creating a natural pathway to affiliate conversions.
Performance-Based Rewards
Unlike traditional advertising models, affiliate marketing rewards results. Your earnings directly correlate with your ability to drive sales and conversions, incentivising the creation of high-quality, engaging content that truly serves your audience’s travel planning needs.
For travel entrepreneurs, affiliate marketing represents a strategic pathway to sustainable income while sharing your passion for exploration and discovery. In addition, it can also be a lucrative side hustle to complement your other travel niche whether you are writing, blogging or working as a travel agent or tour operator, affiliate marketing can be added to your income stream.
Summary
The travel industry offers remarkable opportunities for family-oriented professionals seeking meaningful work that accommodates personal priorities. These eight location independent opportunities demonstrate that you can build a successful business in travel and hospitality without sacrificing family time, or your own desire to travel.
Each role offers unique advantages and challenges, but all share the common thread of allowing you to build a career around your family’s needs rather than forcing family life to conform to rigid professional demands. Whether you’re drawn to the creativity of travel writing, the entrepreneurial potential of tour operations, or the technical challenges of website design, the travel industry provides pathways to professional fulfilment and financial success.
The key to success in any of these roles lies in starting with realistic expectations, building skills gradually, and leveraging your unique perspective and experiences. Many of the most successful professionals in these fields began as passionate amateurs who turned their love of travel and hospitality into thriving careers.
As the travel industry continues to evolve and grow, these opportunities will likely expand, creating even more possibilities for families seeking to build meaningful careers in one of the world’s most dynamic and rewarding sectors.
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