Career Opportunities In Travel And Tourism Sector

The travel and tourism industry in India is growing fast and is expected to do well in the coming years. In India, the travel industry hopes to create 46 million job opportunities by 2025 and this is the crucial sector where the government is pinning hopes of providing major employment opportunities by providing skill-based training programs for local youths and also to match the infrastructure to meet the international standards. According to a report published by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India may add another Rs. 8, 50,000 Crore by the year 2020-just through tourism. As per the calculations of WTTC, tourism industry alone had contributed near about 8.31 lakh crore revenue to Indian GDP in the year 2015. Which is 6.3% of total GDP. Not only the revenue but it has also created 37.315 job opportunities or fulfilled 8.7% of the total employment requirements.

Not only in India, but with respect to the global perspective, the travel and tourism industry is the largest contributor of foreign exchange an enormous number of employees either directly or indirectly benefitted out of this industry.

Let us look at the major job opportunities available in Travel and Tourism industry:

1. Airlines:
   • Ground Staff (Traffic Assistant, Counter Staff, Booking & Reservation)
2. Hotels:
   • Operations
   • Front office
   • Housekeeping
   • Food & Beverage
   • Accounting
   • Maintenance
   • Security
   • Sales
   • Public Relations
3. Tourism Departments:
   • Tour planners & Guides
   • Information Assistants
   • Reservations and Counter staffs
   • Sales and Marketing
   • Interpreters.
4. Transportation: Management and operation in all varieties of transport (Rail/Cruise/Ferry/Bus/coach etc.)
5. Others: Travel Agent, Itinerary Planner, Foreign Exchange, Destination Manager

• Salary: Travel and tourism industry offers decent salary packages. As an added advantage, the tourism industry offers great benefits, target-based incentives, commissions. Few of the companies offer free travel with family as part of their reward programme. You can get a relatively handsome salary in foreign-based airlines or travel agencies. They offer flexible work hours as well as a part-time job opportunity, internship programme for students etc.
• Required skills: Leadership skill is very crucial for this sector. One may need to stretch beyond the stipulated working hours, and should be motivated and ready to work in high-pressure situations. Apart from the specific operational knowledge, excellent communication and people handling skill are required. One should be up-to-date with the policies and documentation process. Above all, domestic and international market knowledge is very essential.

Courses in travel and tourism:

Since, this is a service industry, the experience is key for growth here. For the inexperienced, there are a number of certificate courses available. Let’s have a brief idea of what are the opportunities available.

• Many institutions offer various full time and part time courses pertaining to requirements of travel and tourism industry. The certification ranges from Batchelor to Master degree, diploma courses. Also offers distance learning programmes. There are different verticals of travel and tourism industry such as hotel operation, hospitality, hotel management, airline management (ticketing to steward), administration etc. and courses are available for almost all the verticals.
• One can join an undergraduate course right after completing class 12.
• The Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, to encourage and attract more graduates toward this field, has recently approved a new course, known as Master of Tourism Administrator (MTA). Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) and few other universities offer MTA degree courses.
• A postgraduate degree can be helpful in getting into Positions as managers or in administration need a post-graduate degree
• Even, crash-courses or short period certificate courses in Destination marketing and Tour Operation are competitive enough to get a complete overview of the industry and land with a good job opportunity.
• You can also opt for vocational courses to get a B-Voc degree which is a skill based certificate course. Even a short period course like Destination Marketing & Tour Operations is enough to provide a comprehensive overview of the industry.

Travel and Tourism sector can really redefine the game of development of the economy if it is exploited to the optimum level and added to the threat of jobs getting lost in manufacturing and software sectors due to the advent of AI(artificial intelligence). Not only it will give the son of the soil the chance to get his job at his own place by promoting his local destinations to the tourist but also as the brand ambassador of his place to the world. With the intention of promoting local youths in this travel and tourism sector, both state and central government is identifying new avenues of promoting tourism in India such as:

• Rural Tourism
• Adventure Tourism
• Pilgrimage Tourism
• Eco-Tourism
• Luxury Tourism
• Medical tourism