A career that lets you explore the world

Date: 24-Sep-2009

September 24, 2009  Mumbai:  The words 'location, location, location' are of prime importance when it comes to the travel industry. Today beyond just getting the best deals, travellers are on the lookout for agents who can create the best experience in the most exotic locations. In fact, there is a huge demand for those who can plan itineraries and clinch deals with customers in the highly competitive market.

Choose your road
Creating this unique experience requires that the tour itinerary planner knows the location like the back of his hands. This process is what makes the career one of the most exciting ones in the travel industry. . "As an itinerary planner, one learns and relearns about destinations all the time. There is no dearth of information that a person can get from one destination and there are so many," said Karan Anand, head-relationships and supplier management, Cox and Kings India.

Now with the advent of interactive customer-friendly websites, itinerary planning is becoming even more desirable over ticketing as a career path. "Career progression for an itinerary planner vertical and horizontal. Vertical, implies a rise in designations while horizontal means a person can move on to MICE (Meeting Incentives, Conferences and Events), Trade fairs, Business Travel, destination management and marketing," informed Anand.

Today, travel agencies play a big role in building brand loyalty, by organising Mices for a company's stakeholder. For instance, to cultivate brand loyalty amongst third party dealers or employees, companies often conduct mice which include trips and conferences to exotic locations and ensure that people have a great experience.

Explaining another horizontal, Anand said that to appeal to different tastes innovative special interest tours are created by itinerary planners which include cruises, self drives, gourmet and wine tours, walking tours, astro-tourism, religious tours.

Get creative
"Six million Indians travel abroad every year, by 2020 this figure is expected to cross the 50 million mark, excluding people who travel inside the country," pointed Subhash Motwani, director of IHCTM (Institute of Hotel, Cargo and Tourism Management).But for all these travellers, there is no such thing as a standardised tour. In fact Motwani who also owns a travel agency, has realised that to be a successful entrepreneur in the field requires using newer mediums.

"One can easily find a niche, start a website to offer information about it, pull in travellers to one's unique experiences through blogs, pictures, travel tips and create hatke tours that have never before been offered, " he said.

On his website namastegermany.com, Motwani offers tours that combine pristine landscapes, picturesque medieval towns, majestic monasteries and fairy-tale castles of Germany with a high definition photography tour conducted by an internationally renowned photographer. After the trip, travellers get a certificate of attending a workshop and tour with the photographer and can also participate in photo exhibitions to share their new found talent with the world.

Travel gear
But before taking the plunge into entrepreneurship, one has to strengthen the basics. A formal education background being the first. "A degree or a diploma in travel and tourism is definitely preferred, an additional certificate in IATA is an added plus point," explained Anand.

While Motwani who has trained many students to enter the industry informed,"Learning through breaks in the industry is tough as one starts off at the bottom of the pyramid. At IHCTM, we have started an IATA/UFTAA stepping into management course which teaches managerial skills, negotiation skills, special interest tours, mice, administration, accounting, marketing, technology in the travel industry."

A passion for travel, knowledge of the competitor's selling points, the ability to build a strong bond with customers and translate each lead in to a sale, possess great bargaining and marketing skills, and maintain punctuality in nature and service, are also extremely vital.But above all product knowledge is prime.

There are several ways one can learn. Motwani informed, "Reading up as much on the internet as possible about the location is important for becoming an expert on a location. While on the job, tourism boards will send invites for familiarisation trips to help promote locations, seeing it yourself gives you an upper hand in selling your product. Further, annual product and destination specific training will always get you back on track."

You've been hired!
Your first break in the travel industry should be focusedpurely on learning no matter what job you get. Take for instance, Prasad Pallival whostarted his career as a tour escort for a small agency post a travel and tourism diploma from Mumbai University.He movedonto becoming the manager of inbound and outbound travels after just two years in Raj Travels. "For the three years when I was a tour escort, my work involved guiding groups to every nook and cranny of major tourist spots in India.

These first hand experiences enabled me to transit easily to itinerary planning."Today, Pallival's forecasted itineraries, hotel recommendations, transport routes are sold by Raj Travels' agents in different branches across the country.

"Even though a fresher usually starts off as a trainee and earns just Rs5,000-10,000 per month,half yearly performance audits and appraisals give plenty opportunities to rise up inranksand salary," he assured.

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