Careers in the Travel Industry in Ireland

Better to see something once than hear about it a thousand times�

Asian proverb

CAREERS IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY

W

e spend over a third of our adult lives working so the career path you take can often have a profound impact on your life — not only in pure economic terms but also in terms of general wellbeing, health, fulfilment and personal development.

Not everyone can be (or want to be) a doctor, dentist, accountant, lawyer, engineer, architect or entrepreneur and so — often as not — many people tend to fall into a particular job or career path quite by accident rather than design. In some cases, the lucky ones find that they enjoy their accidental choice but sadly they are — more often than not — the exception to the rule! Life is tough enough without having to make matters worse by choosing a job or profession that you don’t like or even come to hate!

Thankfully, there is an industry where job satisfaction is practically a given; where you get the opportunity to travel the world and where job opportunities are on the increase rather than in decline. The travel industry in Ireland is much larger and more diverse than people realise and covers many different disciplines. The following is a far from complete listing of positions that are constantly in demand: travel consultants, bookkeepers, sales representatives, tele-sales operatives, marketing assistants, tour operating staff, resort representatives, trainers, supervisors, managers, reservations staff etc.

In a recent survey** conducted within the UK, more than 250 jobs, trades and professions were independently assessed based on their respective ‘job satisfaction’ ratings and the role of travel agent scored a respectable 33. By comparison, other mainstream jobs and professions scored less well: Solicitor (44); Civil Engineer (55); Policeman (74); Teacher (106); Journalist (111); Programmer (117); Estate Agent (154); Web Designer (188); Chef (209); Bricklayer (225); IT Engineer (243) and Plasterer (246).

Since travel is a global industry, the skills you acquire here in Ireland can often be transferable to other countries thus ensuring that you are unlikely to be ever out of work — either at home or abroad.

If you are a second or third level student contemplating your future and wondering what your next move should be, then send us your c.v. and tell us a little bit about yourself and what unique attributes you believe you can bring to a position within the travel industry. If you are a career guidance counsellor within one of these institutions and would like some career professional from within the travel industry in Ireland to visit your school and talk to your students about the job opportunities, then email us at info@travelbug.ie

CAREERS IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY Seeing the world won’t cost you the earth!

N

ot if you work within the travel industry, that is. The travel sector represents one half of the global travel and tourism industry which is the world’s largest employer*.

The travel industry (both globally and in Ireland) is a very diverse eco-system that includes a wide variety of participants that include airlines, cruise companies, ferry operators, bed banks, car hire firms, GSA’s, GDS’s, tour operators, insurance brokers, travel agents, IT specialists and consultants — to name but a few.

Like companies in other commercial sectors, the travel industry requires a constant inflow of people with many different skillsets in areas such as sales, marketing, IT, training, accounting, public relations, trade support and so on.

The travel industry — and travel agents and tour operators in particular — enjoy some amazing ‘fringe benefits’ which include regular opportunities to travel abroad on familiarisation trips to experience new properties, resorts and destinations worldwide!

For people with ambition and a strong work ethic, there are plenty of opportunities for career advancement and whilst initial starting pay may be quite modest, typical salaries for experienced supervisors/managers range between ¤30k and ¤40k per annum upwards, depending on company size.

Significantly higher figures can be realised for senior positions in larger companies.

If you want to embark on a career where job satisfaction ranks amongst the highest for any profession worldwide and where you’ll never have to worry about enduring a boring day at the office but will be constantly challenged, then you should seriously consider working within the travel industry!

The easiest path to a career in travel in Ireland is usually through the retail travel sector as most decent sized towns throughout the country boast at least one local travel agency. Most training is provided on the job but is also supplemented by external training conducted by supplier partners and through the medium of regular webinars, workshops and educationals. Alternatively, you can enrol in a travel and tourism course at your nearest Institute of technology or other third level institution but in the case of the latter, bear in mind that you will still need to undertake significant on-the-job training because of the specialist nature of the work required.

For further details on career opportunities in your area, contact your nearest travel agent or consult either the Commission for Aviation website for an up-to-date listing of licensed and bonded travel agents: http://www.aviationreg.ie or the Irish Travel Agents Association: www.itaa.ie Alternatively, contact Travel Centres, Ireland’s largest agency consortium with 75 affiliated agency members located throughout the country: www.travelbug.ie

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? W

e all dream of winning the Lotto and jetting off to some exotic destination like The Maldives, Dubai or South Africa and we tend to associate such globetrotting with rich people and celebrities but did you know that there is a career path that enables you to do just that and get paid for it?

Travel agents may rarely get to be millionaires but occasionally, they get to experience the life of a millionaire by jetting off to exotic destinations; living it up in deluxe hotels and cruising the seven seas.

Over the course of the next few years, starting in 2018, the retail travel industry will require an influx of new interns to boost staffing levels throughout the industry to help us cope with growing demand for our services and to replace

retiring personnel who are coming to the end of their careers.

We will be looking for smart, enthusiastic self-starters who are not afraid of hard work, to join one of the world’s largest industries and biggest employers* in these future recruitment drives, so if you believe that this could be the direction that you would like to take then please contact us at: info@travelbug.ie or visit our website, www.travelbug.ie

Sources: http://www.statista.com/topics/962/global-tourism/ https://skift.com/2015/04/13/five-charts-that-explain-the-size-of-the-global-travel-industry-in-2015/ http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4069673.html * The travel and tourism industry is one of the world’s largest industries with a global economic contribution (direct, indirect and induced) of almost seven trillion U.S. dollars in 2013 http://www.statista.com/topics/962/global-tourism/ **http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26671221