People who have considered going into travel and tourism as a career will know that this has fast become a competitive career choice, with many colleges and employers becoming selective about whom they choose to take on. Travel and tourism is no longer something people can get employment out of straight away, but will need to have gained a considerable amount of academic and work experience from.



The travel and tourism industry has opened up opportunities for people to work into different avenues in this field, including airline training, destination training, hotel training, holiday resort training and much more. These all come under a specified product training package, therefore, they are only essential for certain career paths. Each course is tailor-made for candidates to enhance their knowledge on a specific area of the travel industry. Tourist guides and assistants are required to be knowledgeable in every aspect of the travel industry.

Taking up something like destination training is not a stroll in the park, as this includes knowledge about the chosen destination, from facts and figures, to historical landmarks and cultural influences. These kinds of course require someone willing to communicate with people of a wider audience providing informative advice on their chosen holiday, or making sure their business trip is as comfortable as they can make it.

People in the travel and tourism industry are required to travel to various destinations as part of their destination training gaining personal experience as well as a firsthand insight into the country. This way one may discover places to visit and see that may not be mentioned or referenced in any tour guides. The idea is to sell these destinations as an ideal vacation spot, raising their tourism rate and providing as much guidance on the area.

Airline training requires candidates to know how about various airline ticketing service, booking systems and gain experience in their specified software's. The agents speak to the customers over the phone, whereas those who are training to be an airline passenger services agent would need to speak with customers on a one-to-one basis. Therefore this kind of training requires far more work experience and plenty of work within the customer service industry.

As well as booking customers tickets, they are responsible for issuing the tickets, entering the details onto the system, taking incoming calls, taking payments and other essential tasks. This is normally done at a computer desk or at the boarding gate. Unlike destination training, this does not require the person to travel abroad; however, it does mean plenty of customer interaction and computer training.

Other training can include CRS training, IATA training and many more. These are designed for in depth knowledge of important computer software programmes for major airlines.