| Product: |
My Experiences and Advice |
| Date: |
29/04/02 (47 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Travel opportunities, Good social life
Disadvantages: Pay not great, Long hours, Couldn't see much of future in it
From 1998 until the middle of 2000 I worked as a travel consultant for an independent travel agency.
Below I detail information and advice, based on my experiences, that should hopefully be of use to anyone considering this as a career.
The Job:
A travel consultant is both a sales representative and an advisor to clients.
With many agencies a lot of the time is spent on the telephone giving quotes, answering queries and making the all important sales. You make use of a Computer Reservation System (CRS); we used Galileo to book flights and inhouse software for bookings. You will receive full training on the systems the agency uses.
Your days are spent dealing with the general public and liasing with airlines and tour operators. It is important to be excited and enthusiastic even when you’re booking your fourth around-the-world trip for the day; For many people their holiday is the most important & expensive thing in the year and you have to treat it like that.
At our agency, we didn’t sell package holidays (your 2 weeks to Ibiza) we were expected to tailor-make itineraries and create the client’s ‘perfect trip’ from scratch. This can be quite a challenge; but an enjoyable and satisfying one.
Hours:
At my agency we worked quite long hours: 8.45 – 1800 ( 8 – 1900 during the busy January/February time). We were expected to work weekends including one Sunday a month.
Perks:
There are a number of perks that come with the job; I had 4 weeks holiday in my first year and of course you get discounts so you can go to exotic places during these holidays. (I went to Boston for £80 and 2 weeks in Bali for around £400).
You also get educationals (aka Familiarisation trips) which are visits to holiday destinations (not usually taken out of your holiday allowance) paid for by tour operators or airlines for you to learn more about places so you can improve sales to your cli
ents. (or just have a free holiday!).
There are usually quite a lot of ‘dos’ for travel agents run by airlines and operators; we used to have a couple of occasions a month with food & drink laid on and free gifts!
Qualifications & Experience
Where I worked you were expected to have a degree, but those with relevant experience were also considered. It was very important to have backpacking/independent travel experience in at least 3 continents and ideally a language.
For some ‘Package Holiday’ agencies e.g. Lunn Poly, Going Places etc.. you may only need good GCSE grades, although a travel qualification would also be useful.
You will find that the agencies aimed at the independent traveller will expect more experience and qualification than your average high street operator.
Skills You Will Need:
You will need a pretty good knowledge of the world and destinations.
You will need to have really good communications skills and be able to build up a rapport with customers.
Basic IT skills and good numeracy skills are also desirable (quite a lot of cost calculating is required!).
Training
I received 5 weeks intensive training for my role; I learnt to operate the Computer system as well as major airline routes, codes and destinations. We were also taught sales and customer service skills.
Most agencies will provide new employees with training before they start in the role.
Pay
The travel industry is notorious for its poor rate of pay. I was fortunate enough to work for an agency which offered very good, ‘graduate’ wages. However salaries can be as low as £8000 for starting out.
Downside:
The work can be stressful and tiring during busy periods, when it is important to remain calm, helpful and smiley even when under pressure from large numbers of customer enquiries. We would have thousands of calls in January/February and it did take its toll
.
I felt frustrated after a couple of years as there was not much room for further career development unless you want to become a Travel Agency Manager or Supervisor.
I enjoyed my time as a Travel Consultant, but after 2 years I had, had enough! It has provided me with good selling skills and gave me fantastic travel opportunities, but I’m not sure if it’s a long-term career option.
If you want more information on this as a career then there are some contacts below:
01483 740 854 - TENTO Travel and tourism training organisation
http://www.ttctraining.co.uk/ - Travel Training Company, is affiliated to ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents).
Institute of Travel & Tourism
113 Victoria Street
St. Albans
Hertfordshire
AL1 3TJ
Summary:
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Last comment:
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hellyphant - 02/05/02 Excellent opinion - but not really my kind of thing. Although those discounted holidays do sound quite appealing... |
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