A Career In Travel & Tourism

Travel and tourism industry has witnessed immense growth in the last 5 to 10 years. And now, the career prospects in the same field have grown immensely. Besides that, India carrying the heritage of being one of the oldest civilization in the world is gradually becoming a favorite destination of many, mainly because of its mystique past and cultural diversity. The other important factor is the stable political environment and an English Speaking hospitable host for tourists.

So, surge in growth has made a career in this field a lucrative option leading to emergence of several courses in Travel and Tourism.
Career options in travel and tourism:

Travel Agencies: A travel agency facilitates travel and other services for all individuals traveling for vacations or business purposes. Providing information on destination, hotel ratings, the cheapest and the fastest mode of transport, visas, foreign exchange etc. is the main job of a travel agent. One can divide travel agencies into roughly four departments - the Accounts, Tours, Travel and Cargo.

Tourism Department: In a tourism department, theres a reservation and counter staff, sales and marketing staff, tour planners, tour guides, information assistants and officers in the Directorate and Department of tourism. Officers for the Directorate and Department of tourism are chosen from the civil services and their job is mainly to promote and plan tourism.

Hotels: Hospitality has a major role to play in travel and tourism as hotels provide travelers with food and accommodation services. So, it demands professionals in jobs related to front office, operations, house keeping, food and beverages, accounting, management and public relations are available. A course in hotel management would easily help you find a suitable job.

Transport: Air, railways, road and sea are the categories in which transport is divided into.
Road transport: Coaches and tourist cars provide scope for self employment in metros and towns all over India. Drivers who command good conversation skills and knowledge of different languages are ideal for this job.
Airlines: This industry employees professional for various kinds of jobs. For ground staff, airlines recruit smart and presentable professionals with a degree in hotel management or travel and tourism. Also they hire people as traffic assistants, reservation and counter staff, air hostess & flight pursuers, sales and marketing staff and people to provide customer services.

Tour operators: Another kind of such job is that of tour operators. These individuals are responsible for organizing tours and manage travel and stay of their clients. They are responsible for conducting tours to known tourist attractions and some of them help the tourists indulge in adventure sports like river rafting and rock climbing. For doing this job, you must have a very pleasant personality, detailed knowledge concerning travel and language skills.

Holiday consultants: This job is very interesting. It is a relatively new career option in the travel and tourism industry. A holiday consultant is supposed to provide all the information to his / her clients. They are also supposed to sell the holiday, plan the itenary, make the travel plan, book the tickets and provide all the other details which are required.

Banks: Banks hire people in this field to assist tourists and travelers on foreign exchange. For this job, usually MBA professionals are preferred. Besides that, banks help in hotel and ticket bookings.
Personal Attributes -

Though a strong education background or a degree from a good institute really helps, to be a part of this industry one requires some efficient personal attributes as well. You need to have a charming personality and detailed knowledge concerning traveling and tourist destinations. Also, you need to have good written and oral communication skills. In the end, the ability and patience to help and provide hospitality is equally important.
Salaries -

After you senior secondary examination [10+2] or after your graduation in any discipline, you can start a career in travel and tourism. In this industry, you can expect a beginning salary of Rs.3500 to Rs.4500. If you work as a service manager, you can expect a salary of about Rs.10000 to Rs.15000.

Institutes offering these courses
Kuoni Academy - Mumbai, Paradise Institute of Management Studies (PIMS), Indira Gandhi National Open University, Rai Foundation, India International Trade Center etc.

Few useful links:

http://www.shiksha.com/

http://hospitality.shiksha.com/getCategoryPage/colleges/hospitality/All/All/Travel-Toursim