I Want to Work In … Travel & Tourism

 

Travel Careers

including Ecotourism and what you can do with a degree in tourism.

 

Useful starting points:

 

 

PROFILE: Tourism Information Centre Manager

Provides information to tourists about local attractions, events and accommodation. Deals with enquiries face to face, by phone, and post.
EMPLOYERS: mainly local authorities but also national parks, private organisations.
SATISFACTIONS: helping people, variety.
NEGATIVES: lower level posts may be seasonal.
SKILLS: languages, verbal communication, organising, computing, teamworking, negotiating.
DEGREE: any degree subject, business, tourism, languages are all helpful.
TIPS: "Get experience in shops, hotels, travel agents etc. Gain a good knowledge of the locality in which you wish to work."

 

PROFILE: Travel Agent

INVOLVES: Clerical/technical sorting of travel arrangements. Financial & computer work after hours to ensure people & destinations match. Giving advice on travel matters. Marketing holidays & travel. Selling to customers. Meeting targets.
EMPLOYERS: Large agency chains e.g. Thomas Cook. Independent travel companies: Trailfinders, Campus Travel.
RELATED JOBS: tour guide, retail manager. hotel manager, tourism information centre manager, conference administrator.
SATISFACTIONS: Seeing someone coming back from a good trip totally relaxed/changed.
NEGATIVES: Paperwork. Stress of achieving turnaround of passengers in peak time (e.g. a queue of people flying tomorrow). Low pay, but somewhat cancelled out by holiday perks.
SKILLS: spoken communication, persuading, listening, cooperating.
ADVANCEMENT: Limited management structure - Consultant/Senior Consultant/Manager. Regional Manager/...MD - chances to move to HQ as sales etc. The profession is bottom heavy with a lot of staff competing for promotion.
DEGREE: Any degree subject is acceptable - languages, area studies (e.g. European), geography, tourism useful.
POSTGRADUATE STUDY: not needed for entry.
VACANCY SOURCES: Travel & Trade Gazette.
TIPS: Try speculative letters to HQ of travel companies. Stress travel experience/sales /computing skills. Time out for travelling may be advantage for independent travel companies.

 

PROFILE: Holiday Representative

Looks after holidaymakers at resorts. Meets people on arrival. Organises excursions and entertainment. Acts as a tour guide. Handles problems such as lost possessions or passports. Deals with illness of guests. Liaises with hotel managers.
EMPLOYERS: Holiday companies, hotels, transport companies.
SATISFACTIONS: helping people, working in a beautiful location, variety.
NEGATIVES: Poor pay, pressurised and stressful, long and unsocial hours, work may be seasonal.
SKILLS: people skills, stamina, commonsense, enthusiasm, tact, language skills.
TIPS: apply speculatively to holiday companies. Often a stepping stone to other tourism jobs.


Books (available in the Careers Service)Travel Careers

Employers

Tourism in Kent

See our Working in Kent pages www.kent.ac.uk/careers/kentopps.htm#Tourism for details of other organisations in the tourism and transport sector that have a presence in Kent

Tourist Guiding

Tourism Management Graduates

Employers will be as interested in your personal skills as your degree subject. The tourism industry will be recruiting potential managers and so decision making, problem solving, working effectively within a team and flexibility will be essential. In an industry where personal service to the customer is so important, an outgoing, friendly personality and the ability to think on your feet will be an advantage. Good communication and presentation skills are essential and you will need language skills to work abroad.

You will need to show evidence of having and using relevant skills so think carefully about your academic and other experience and be prepared to describe situations where you have demonstrated them. See your careers adviser if you need help with skills mapping.

Destinations of Kent Tourism Management Graduates

 

Ecotourism

Ecotourism has been defined as, "Travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people." It involves helping people to understand and appreciate the environment including the need for wildlife conservation and respect for native peoples.

There is a wide range of job opportunities involved with ecotourism including wildlife lodge manager, trail leader, ecotour naturalist, educational instructor, PR Executive, marketing manager and program director. You may work for a private company that runs tours, or a national park or outdoor education center. You could eventually manage your own ecotourism business. The work can sometimes be dangerous, and the hours long. If you are a tour guide in the jungle, you have to be constantly on the lookout for potential dangers to your hikers. Much of the work in ecotourism is seasonal. It is helpful to be fluent in a language used in major ecotourisTrue Stories from Travel Agencies

I had someone ask for an aisle seat so that their hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window.

A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?"

I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts. "Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... click.

A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, "Don't lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state."

I got a call from a man who asked, "Is it possible to see England from Canada?" I said, "No." He said "But they look so close on the map."

Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour lay-over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, "I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time."

A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of llinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!

A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know who's luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I "looked into it" ( I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.

I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them.

"A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever."

A business man called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express."

A woman called to make reservations, "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York" The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent: "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!"

m destinations. As it is a relatively new area there is not much careers information available, so you will need to use Creative Jobhunting techniques

Other information resources

 

Last fully updated2011