Tourism & Travel Management
The travel and tourism industry, along with the related sectors contributing to it, is expected to grow in leaps and bounds in the coming years. A job in this industry can be highly exciting and adventurous and even pays well. In India, the travel industry hopes to create 46 million job opportunities by 2025. Though it was slow to take off in this country, the government's initiatives in this field are uncovering a bright future for those who want to make a career in this field.
India's potential in the field of travel and tourism is hardly close to being fulfilled. The country is a geographical anomaly, having almost all the geographical features available. According to a report published by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), India could possibly add another Rs. 8, 50,000 crores by the year 2020-just through tourism! WTTC calculated that tourism generated 8.31 lakh crore or 6.3 per cent of the nation's GDP in 2015 and supported 37.315 million jobs, which is about 8.7 per cent of its total employment.
Career options in Travel and Tourism:
"Students have endless career opportunities in the fastest growing industry of travel," says Rashmi Samarvir Arora, Owner of Costa Training Institute, Mumbai (Hub Partner for Travel & tourism, TISS SVE).
"Few of the career options are working in travel agencies, Customer Ground Handling (customer service) at international or domestic airports, tour operator, event manager, ticketing officer, adventure tourism expert, transport officer, holiday consultant, logistics, cruises, airlines, hotels, and tourism departments in government and private sectors.
Important features of the travel and tourism industry:
- Travel and tourism is the largest earner of foreign exchange world-wide and employs millions of people directly or indirectly through associated service industries
- This industry includes everything from the government tourism departments and major multinational companies to the small scale private travel agents
- While working in this industry, one provides services to people who are traveling for business or holiday or both, thus catering to tour packages, pilgrim travel, adventure travel or casual sightseeing
- At almost every point of work in this field, employees need to interact personally with the customers and understand their needs while making them comfortable, so as to be able to provide the best service in terms of travel options and arrangements.