Home » Working Women » Careers - Travel & Hospitality » Travel as a Career Who are travel agents?: These people are solely into marketing the concept of travel. They plan and sell trips to individuals and groups. They book tickets - for air, rail, sea or road travel, arrange hotel reservations or guest houses, hire taxis etc. Besides domestic, all travel agents undertake international bookings and special business tours or conferences, too.

Nature of Work: Working in this field means dealing with people directly on a daily basis. Helping people plan their itinerary, providing ticketing services to company executives, co-ordinating with the airlines, railways or transport company staff, arranging passports and visas, booking hotels - all these require not only a great deal of mobility but also regular contact with the representatives of the various services.

One must be up-to-date on rules and regulations governing foreign travel, documents required, hindrances if any; so as to correctly advise the clients. All the staff, be it in marketing, counter sales or guide services must be knowledgeable about the places their clients intend to visit - the best way to reach your destination, places to visit, facilities available etc.

Major areas of work in a travel agency include counter work, marketing and management. Counter work involves helping clients with their itineraries, chalking out travel routes, procuring tickets, arranging for passports and visas, making hotel reservations, organising cargo transport and the like. Counter clerks must be able to have easy access to timetable information and be extremely accurate with the information provided to clients. A small slip on their part could result in embarrassing or even disastrous consequences.

Marketing in this area includes advertising and an aggressive promotion of the agency to potential customers. Procuring steady business for the company is their major job. The management staff deals with the administration of the agency. The managers co-ordinate and streamline the work of the clerks and select brochures of the various tours and packages available with them, among other things.

(i) A basic diploma in travel and tourism management can be advantageous to a person seeking to work in this field. This is in addition to a basic degree. (ii) For higher positions, a graduate degree in any discipline with a specialisation in history and architecture or geography and archaeology can be a great asset (iii) Knowledge of one or more foreign languages is an added advantage. If one is applying for a Government post, he/she has to clear a written test, a personal interview and a medical examination. On-the-job training is provided to all new entrants.