Matt Wahlgren, owner of Matt Travel, didn’t start out with his heart set on working in the travel industry. His story starts in the mountains of Bulgaria, with a jaunt in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to where he is today: building his network outside of the industry while helping his clients travel thoughtfully.
The toughest job he ever loved
Wahlgren’s first step after college took him to the Peace Corps, as he felt the calling to do something more before settling down into what he thought would be the 9-to-5 office life.
“It was my senior year of college and I was like, ‘Wow, after all these years of going to school, from kindergarten all the way up, school is finally ending. It’s finally going to be over,’” he says. “And I felt like I was about to accomplish something big here by graduating college, but I also kind of felt like I didn’t do anything. And now I’m going to get a job, and I guess I’m just going to go sit in a cubicle for the next 30 years. Something just didn’t feel right. I thought I needed something else before I settled down.”
After hearing about the Peace Corps from a professor, Wahlgren joined on a two-year assignment. He was invited to work in Bulgaria and just a few months after applying, he was there. “And that was the first time I’d ever been abroad,” he says.
“I lived in this little tiny village; it was very picturesque. It had cobblestone roads and the Rhodope Mountains right there. The town was nestled right under those mountains,” he remembers.
The Peace Corps’ slogan is “The toughest job you’ll ever love,” something Wahlgren definitely learned, along with learning how to speak Bulgarian and how to live in a culture and community that was totally new to him.
“The first year was kind of slow. You need to get your bearings; you need to get relationships built. But that second year, it really exploded,” he says. He was assigned to community and organizational development, which encompassed work like applying for grants, building a wood and metal workshop, building a youth health center, starting a Meals on Wheels program, building a home for at-risk youth and teaching classes on international cooking, English and ceramics.
“I wanted to accomplish something,” he says.
But it wasn’t all work and no play for Wahlgren. He managed to work in traveling as much as he could.
“That’s where I got the travel bug. I just fell in love with traveling,” he says. “I got a few weeks of vacation time, so I traveled all over the country. You couldn’t leave the country unless you were on your own vacation time but you could visit around different parts of the country, so I would go around and visit other volunteers to see what they were doing.”
On his vacation time, he went all over Europe; to Greece, Romania and Istanbul — twice. “It was amazing,” he says. “I just love that city.”
After his Peace Corps assignment was over, he took a Close of Service trip, which is a common practice for Peace Corps volunteers. “I hung around for a month after my service ended and went all over Europe. So that informs how I approach my travel business because well … guess what I’m an expert in? Europe!”
Becoming a Good Travels Advisor
Wahlgren’s time in the Peace Corps not only sparked his ambitions to get into the travel industry, but it continued to influence him as he grew his business and inspired him to become a certified Good Travels Advisor.
The Good Travels Advisor certification is an online training platform launched in 2016 through Tourism Cares, an organization dedicated to maximizing travel’s potential to be a global force for good. The certification gives travel advisors the knowledge and tools to support travelers interested in giving and volunteering.
“I decided to sign up for that when they first launched it because I felt like it dovetailed with my Peace Corps experience, and I wanted to have that certification, so my clients know that I’m thoughtful about traveling,” Wahlgren says. “When I go somewhere new where I don’t know the culture, I’m always a little bit nervous. I want to be respectful; I want to make sure I’m not doing anything that would harm anyone. The Good Travels Advisor program has different components and one of them is being as environmentally sustainable as you can when you’re traveling and also making sure you’re not doing anything when you’re there that would harm the locals.
“We have to be mindful of that,” Wahlgren says.
Connecting outside of travel
Wahlgren’s travel agency is also a Certified LGBT Business Enterprise through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. He learned about this certification when he was on the board of the Rainbow Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley.
“That was my project during the pandemic last year. I decided to lay the groundwork to further build my business,” he says. The certification helps get his agency in front of B2B clients so businesses will use his services for their events like conferences and off-site meetings in other countries.
There was an application process for him to get this certification, but his experience with the Rainbow Chamber of Commerce helped move him along in the process.
Wahlgren sees this certification as valuable not only for the business it brings him, but for the networking it’s made possible for him. “If that’s something you’re interested in, I would definitely get that and start building those connections if you want to work with other businesses to sell travel. It’s a great way to get outside of the industry,” he says.
There are certifications like the LGBT one, but for other communities of business owners. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council certifies women-owned businesses (and is what the LGBT certification was modeled after), National Minority Supplier Development Council certifies minority-owned businesses and Disability:IN is a nonprofit organization that certifies disability-owned business enterprises, veteran disability-owned business enterprises and service-disabled veteran disability-owned business enterprises.
“It’s important to get a perspective outside of the industry and see how people run their business,” Wahlgren says. “You learn from them in a different way.”
Una casa nueva
The roller-coaster ride that was 2020 inspired Wahlgren and his partner to do another big thing. “We just thought, it’s been a crazy year, we might as well get crazy, too,” he says.
So in August 2020, they sold their house in San Jose, California, and moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
“It was a really awesome experience, especially in those beginning months because nobody was there,” he says. “And we could just walk around town and explore. Oftentimes there are a lot of tourists and it’s really busy, so it was nice to see the city when it’s quiet.”
Then in February 2021, they sensed that things were slowly returning back to normal, so they moved back to the U.S., settling just outside of Dallas.
Find Matt’s agency online at matt.travel.
What’s in Matt’s carry-on?
Matt shares what he can’t travel without.
“I have this little comfort kit that I put together in a little drawstring bag — that bag from Crown Royal — I save those and if I give one to clients, I put a little bottle of Crown Royal in it. When I make them for myself, I put [in] some earplugs, headphones, towelettes, a little toothbrush, and toothpaste, a lotion, definitely some breath strips, some playing cards. It’s a little different every time. I put a little snack in there of some sort and I just bring it with me on the plane. It’s got everything I need in there to freshen up.
“Do you ever feel a little funky after you’ve been on a plane for a while? I use these deodorizing wipes to wipe down your clothes, to freshen up. About an hour before the plane lands, I go in the bathroom and brush my teeth, freshen up. I tend to give one to whoever is traveling with me too, just to make the ride a little more enjoyable. I don’t fly first class, so that’s my own version of those first-class kits, but better.”
Originally appeared in the summer 2021 issue of The Compass Magazine.
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