Describe career opportunities within different industries in the travel and tourism sector
In this document I am going to be looking at the different career options or choices within the different industries of the travel and tourism sector. Different industries within the travel and tourism sector include; retail travel, tour operations, transport, accommodation, and attractions. Working in the above mentioned sectors requires different qualifications and obviously different skills. I am going to look at three of the above mentioned sectors and say how they present different career opportunities.
I am going to look at tour operations, transport and accommodation.
Tour operations
Tour operators are the people that put together holidays and form a wide variety of options for their customers to choose from, such as full package holidays or individual breakdowns of places to stay, cheapest and more expensive options (catering for different budget types) as well as different places to visit that are of interest in a national and international scale. Tour operators basically construct your holiday, to the way they think best suits you and gets you what you want in the end. An example of a tour operators is Thomas Cook, which is a huge tour operator that is one of the largest in the world, however, there are smaller tour operators that are present such as Cosmo. These smaller tour operators are under threat from larger operators as if Cosmo for example is seeing more demand than Thomas Cook in the area that they operate in, then it is possible that Thomas Cook will buy out Cosmo in order to receive more customers and therefore more profits in the long run.
General qualities that all tour operators will be looking for in a potential employee include the following; good telephone manner, outgoing personality, ability to listen, diplomacy, good decision making skills, excellent administrative skills, and computer skills.
Some of the job opportunities in this industry include the following;
Sales- this involves dealing with enquiries from travel agents as well as selling to the general public, this therefore highlights the reason why as an employee you would need to have good telephone manner if you wanted to work for a company like Thomas Cook of Cosmo.
Product development- this is quiet self-explanatory and involves you developing new products that the customers may like, this could include developing new travel destinations as well as special package holidays for example.
Marketing- this once again is quiet self-explanatory and this involves working on informative brochure, market research, using point-of-sale (POS) system merchandising, press and public relations. This is all done in order for customers to have an understanding of the tour operators morals and there aims as well as what they have on offer in terms of the type of holidays that they offer. A good relationship with your shareholders and stakeholders is very important and this is achieved by be transparent with them and making sure that there is a good public relation with the business.
Customer service- this involves handling customer complaints by either phone, fax, emails or letters. This is a very important aspect of a business as this is where you find out what the company failed to do or where there were mistakes that were made that can be learnt from and therefore lead to a better service being offered and therefore a happy customer.
Operations- this involves handling all the flights and the transport links that customers are going to be using within package holidays that Thomas Cook offers. This is very important and if the company makes booking errors and causes unnecessary delays to their customers then there is a chance that these customers will no longer want to use Thomas Cook.
Contracting- this involves handling negotiations rates for accommodation as well as with other areas including airlines and hotels.
Overseas- this includes representatives (reps) in other countries that operate on Thomas Cook’s behalf and offer additional services to customers, children couriers, entertainers and coordinating overseas operations such as staffing and customer support.
Human resources and training- this involves helping with all of the aspects that are involved in the recruitment process as well as looking at promotion and management of the company on the whole.
Finance, administration and IT systems- this involves working with the company in mind and looking to support the principal that the company operates on. This could range from financial, administrative and knowledge of IT systems which would enable finances to be managed properly as well as the running of the business in terms of the front desk and customer service.
Transport
Transport refers to the carrying or taking from one place to another by the means of a vehicle, aircraft, or ship. Therefore this means that the transport sector is very broad due to the fact that there are many transportation means when traveling by air, sea and land. Some opportunities for employment in the travel and tourism industry include; Airlines, Ferry companies, Car hire firms, Coach Operators, Train companies, Cruise lines and inland waterways. Like with every element of the travel and tourism sector jobs in this industry require specific skills and will range in terms of the number of these qualifications depending on the job. The general skills and qualifications that employees within the transport industry look for include a positive attitude, excellent communication and customer care skills, technical ability, good personal presentation, attention to detail and an awareness of the importance of health and safety. The last point of health and safety knowledge and awareness is of utmost importance as when you are transporting people, you have their lives in your hand and you as a driver of a bus for example, must be aware of health and safety and take care when transporting passengers.
Accommodation
Career progression
This can occur in four different ways; * The first is that of the same type of job in the same organisation. For example when a sales consultant in Thomas Cook who is promoted to senior sales consultant. * The second is that of doing a different job in the same organisation. For example a member of a cabin crew for Aer Lingus who decides to apply for a job in the operations department instead of being a cabin drew member. * The third is when you take a similar job with another company. For example, a call centre operator switching from Thomas Cook to Riviera tours. * The fourth and final way is applying for a different job with a new company. For example a sales consultant at Thomas Cook applying to Aer Lingus as a cabin crew member, which is completely different from the previous job in Thomas Cook.
Off-the-job training is also another aspect of progression that can occur within the travel and tourism sector and is present on most of the companies that operate in the travel and tourism sector. Off-the-job training is when an employee will gain development and training and improving their skills in order that they will be able to carry out these duties or responsibilities better than they were previously able to which in turn will have a positive impact on the business. For example, is I am working at Thomas Cook and my sales skills are not the best or not as good as they could be but I am really good at using IT systems, then Thomas Cook could send me to go for a training course on sales skills which would mean that I would be able to work to the full potential that I could, this all depends on what Thomas Cook feels obviously. If they think that the investment into my training will be a waste of time and not beneficial, then they are likely not going to proceed with it. Usually when this happens, Thomas Cook will pay for the courses, but in return you will have to sign a contract that states that you are going to work with Thomas Cook for 2 years for example. This is done so that they keep the staff that they have trained as it would be pointless training staff members and then them leaving once they got their qualifications that Thomas Cook paid for. This is basically a reassurance plan in place to keep employees that are trained by the company within the company. This will involve the staff member who is receiving the training to go away for the course and this is therefore why this is called Off-the-job training.
On-the-job training on the other hand is when employees gain and develop their work skills and the knowledge which comes with it whilst they are carrying out the daily duties that they already have. Most jobs in the travel and tourism sector are suited to this type of training due to the fact that this is ‘hands on training’ and aspects such as learning how reservation systems work can be done without having to send employers away for training that can be done in house without having to pay for courses and therefore saving the company money. On-the-job training can lead to qualifications such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ’s) and SVQ’s in other countries like Scotland.
Further education college courses in travel and tourism sector are often the first step towards a qualification and a possible career in the travel and tourism industry. In conclusion, there are several different career opportunities within the travel and tourism sector and there are several different industries within the travel and tourism sector that offer these positions include; retail travel, tour operations, transport, accommodation, and attractions. In the above document I at tour operations, transport and accommodation, I stated what happens in each of these industries as well as highlighting possible jobs that could be used within these industries which contribute to the travel and tourism sector on the whole.