Since she had always enjoyed traveling, Laura Daniels took a travel course at Finger Lakes Community College a few years back, while working as a bar code scanner salesperson. Today, she's a travel consultant for Van Zile Travel in Greece and has been everywhere from Hawaii to London to the Caribbean Islands.

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In her second career, she says, "I'm basically able to fulfill people's dreams."

With all the information available about different vacation spots, air fares and various travel packages, people often turn to travel agents to help disseminate the glut of data.

A travel agent will make recommendations on destinations, arrangements for transportation and hotel accommodations, and even give advice on which restaurants to eat at and which sights to see.

Daniels estimates that 30 to 40 percent of her clients come into the office not even knowing where they want to go, only that they need to get away. "They may have it in the back of their minds . . . we help discern what vacation is right for them."

The Internet boom has expanded the industry. "It allows us to have access to more cities and destinations," says Daniels. "We have people coming in with more exotic destinations."

Travel agents need a minimum of a high school diploma although more and more are getting into the business with college degrees. Van Zile offers an "in-house" training program, for entry-level candidates, which runs eight to 10 weeks.

Agents must also become knowledgeable of the airlines' computer systems, which is useful in helping book travel arrangements.

Then there's the tough part of the job. Daniels says travel agents and consultants have to take one or two "familiarization trips" per year, so they are better able to give accurate recommendations to their clients. These are, of course, working trips. "If we know a product we can better explain it," Daniels says. Clients will be more confident in their agent's ability if they are able to give first-hand advice on a particular location.

According to a Louis Harris poll taken in 1996 for Travel Weekly magazine, the median annual earnings for travel agents on straight salary ranged from $16,400 to $32,600 depending upon the number of years of experience. As they build a client base, many agents will gain more of a salary on commission sales.

Travel agents are also eligible for major discounts on air fares and hotel stays, sometimes as high as 75 percent.