Of course, being travel director isn’t all play and no work. This job does require an array of skills. Actually, a travel director must be sort of a jack-of-all-trades. He/she must be extremely flexible and adaptable. A person in this field must be always learning. He/she must read and know much information about the places where they will be going. There is a lot of advance planning to be sure that all goes well on the actual trip.
A college degree is usually necessary for this kind of job. This is required basically because the person in this line of work needs to be well rounded and well spoken. Certainly, people skills are a must and basic computer proficiency is almost always required.
Corporate travel agencies often employ travel directors. This is primarily for trips for high-level employees or large groups. The role of the travel director can very greatly depending on the company that you work for and the nature of the travel. A travel director leading a business group has a quite different job than someone leading a basic tour group. This travel director will have many responsibilities. He or she must be available at all times, day or night to ensure that all goes smoothly and to head off any problems that may arise. The director remains with the business group for the duration of the trip.
The travel director may be responsible for all of the following: air travel plans, hotel reservations, making sure that all is well up on arrival, reserving and setting up all conference rooms or conference centers, all meals and snacks for meeting rooms, arranging for meeting halls, providing video equipment, arranging for handouts and other literature that may be pertinent to the place of the meeting, anything else that may be required for the business to have a successful meeting, and anything that helps better acquaint the travelers with the area they are visiting.
The travel director for a business trip may also plan some tours or recreational activity for the group on a given day. Additionally, the travel director may plan activities for the spouses and children of the businessmen and women. The travel director may even be called upon and need to take all the necessary steps to help evacuate the group in the event of an emergency or impending disaster.
For vacation travel, most travel directors are hired by travel agencies. Others may work independently. On a holiday trip or vacation, the role of the travel director is quite similar, but obviously the main focus is on the touring and making sure that everyone is having a good time. Similarly to the director on a business trip, the travel director on a vacation package accompanies his or her assigned group for the duration of the trip. This includes all tours, hotels, bus rides, and meals.
The travel directors are constantly making sure that all is running smoothly and that the vacationers and sightseers are getting the most out of the trip. They set the daily itinerary, seating assignments, hotel provisions, transportation, guest speakers, specialized tour guides, and shopping ideas. Like traveling with a business group, the travel directors who accompany people on vacation are available 24-7, which means they are on-call all the time. This could mean that in this job, you don’t have much of a life yourself or even a good time. Quite to the contrary, people in this field love working in world traveling jobs and they love people; therefore, it is not really work for them. However, a travel director must travel solo. The work is too time consuming to have to divide your attention in any way. Preferably, the person who becomes a travel director full time as a career is best to stay single and not have too many commitments at home.
It may not be so easy to find great travel director jobs, but with a little due diligence, some patience, and by searching the Internet, you will get results and the job may prove to be worth the effort.
And - did you know that just in the US, almost three million hotel rooms are sold each night? And, according to the Travel Industry Association, travel is nearly an eight billion dollar industry! Being a travel director may be a just the career you are looking for as an opportunity to have one of the great world traveling jobs available.
