The British Travel and Tourism sector has recently been hailed as a ‘job creation powerhouse’ and a growth industry. The report launched by Deloitte, explains how the ‘tourism economy is set to grow 3.8% per annum through to 2025’ – faster than manufacturing, construction and retail. Which, of course, means recruiters are busy looking for candidates who will be ideal for travel companies. Our Newsletter Editor, Alex Martin, has been investigating. If you want to put forward great candidates for the travel sector, what should you be looking for? What type of qualifications and qualities are desirable for travel companies?
Here are our top 10 essentials for travel candidates:
Travel and tourism degrees
Clearly potential candidates with ‘Travel and Tourism’ degrees are going to be particularly desirable and have shown a commitment to working in the industry. Although a Travel and Tourism degree could be a useful starting point for more practical jobs in the travel industry such as an air hostess or a travel agent, they are often a foundation for management positions and marketing functions within travel businesses, as What Uni points out in this article.
NVQs / ACVE
Travel is an industry where degrees are by no means considered essential by employers. More vocational qualifications such as a Travel and Tourism Services NVQ or travel-related GNVQs and AVCEs are commonplace qualifications in the travel sector, where more practical experience is often valued more highly than academic achievement.
Training schemes
Learning on the job is often considered the best approach in travel, and several companies in the sector offer training schemes. So you may want to seek out candidates who have successfully completed such schemes at large travel agencies.
Travel and Tourism Certificate (HNC)
Roughly equivalent to a year of a university degree, the Travel and Tourism Certificate HNC is often taken as part of distance learning and is a mixture of research projects and practical travel and tourism industry skills. This is well suited for entry-level jobs which have the scope for progression to junior management.
Customer-facing experience
As Kay Dixon, General Manager of travel website Holiday Hypermarket, points out, qualifications are not always completely necessary for travel industry candidates. “Candidates with experience at a sales level are incredibly valuable. They learn good customer service skills, what customers like, how they like to book and what they want out of a holiday”. Front-line experience with customers is vitally important in sales roles as much as customer service jobs, so this should be a key skill to identify in potential candidates.
A friendly telephone manner
A good, polite manner on the phone and in email communications is vital for sales and customer service roles in the travel industry. Customers are often parting with large sums of money for a potentially once in a lifetime experience. If your candidate sounds unfriendly or standoffish on the phone or over email, they might not be right for travel.
A sense of geography
It may sound obvious but at least some idea of where the Caribbean is and which US coast San Francisco sits on is incredibly desirable. Although a forensic knowledge of obscure destinations is not required, it might be worth giving candidates a quick geography sense check before putting them forward for interview.
Team players
In travel more than most industries, being a team-focused employee is vital. Whether it’s working as part of a team of holiday reps looking after holidaymakers or achieving booking targets as part of a sales team, the ability to work well with others is essential.
A willingness to learn
The travel industry is fast-paced and can involve a lot of multi-tasking, so a willingness to learn new skills, develop within a role and demonstrate flexibility is important. Ask your potential candidates to give you real life examples when they’ve done the following.
Online experience
Travel was one of the first industries to really realise the potential of the web and as such, is still developing online at an incredibly fast rate. Knowledge of the online world, and more specifically the online travel world, is becoming very important to employers, particularly for marketing positions, where a wide range of online marketing skills are highly desirable.
So there are our 10 things to look for when you’re recruiting travel candidates. It’s a competitive industry where dynamic problem-solvers and friendly, customer-focused candidates are always in demand. Kay Dixon of Holiday Hypermarket, who has worked in travel for over 35 years, says, “I knew a career in travel was for me because I have always loved exploring. So look for people who are comfortable with trying new things and have the practical, customer-focused experience necessary to make people happy.”
