With the advent of the Internet, more and more people are choosing DIY travel. But this doesn’t mean that a career as a travel agent is already a thing of the past. In fact, the luxury travel industry is booming nowadays. This industry is geared towards upscale travellers who would prefer to hire someone to plan their trips instead of doing it themselves. Therefore, if you are thinking of taking up a career as a luxury travel agent, now is the best time to jumpstart your career.
Below are some tips to help you start a career in luxury travel.
1. Super Boost Your CV
Before you begin searching for opportunities in the luxury travel industry, the first step is to update your CV. Remember that the main purpose of your resume is to land you an interview. It will reveal to your future employer what you’ve done in the past as it details your skills, work experiences, education, and most importantly, the accomplishments you have made with the past employers.
When it comes to updating your resume, it is not enough that you make the necessary changes. You must super boost it to get the attention of potential employers. Remember, you are not the only one who may be looking for job opportunities in the luxury travel industry. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other individuals out there who will compete with you to get the best job.
Instead of merely listing your past responsibilities, make your CV stand out by highlighting your results. More importantly, use quantifiable data when showcasing your accomplishments. Don’t forget to emphasise changes and growth in your career. Show how you’ve grown and the accomplishments you’ve achieved. This will show a potential employer that you’ve learned a lot of things from past positions and that you are committed to learning and expanding your skills.
2. Get on LinkedIn
LinkedIn offers various opportunities for those in the job market, helping job seekers establish connections, keep track of businesses and events, and even make jobs seeking them instead of the other way around.
LinkedIn can help you look for jobs faster since most hiring managers and recruiters are using it. Therefore, one of the tips for starting a career in luxury travel is to have an active and well put-together LinkedIn profile. A LinkedIn profile can significantly increase your chances of getting discovered by some of the biggest companies in the luxury travel industry. Potential employers can contact you through this professional networking site if they find you a perfect fit for their organisation.
Having a well-written profile in LinkedIn will give you credibility and paint you as someone trustworthy. Every recruiter who contacted you has looked into your profile. Your LinkedIn account validates that you are a real person searching for a job and not some other people with CVs that are too good to be true.
3.Be Flexible
Whether you are looking to improve yourself as a travel agent or starting a new career in luxury travel, flexibility is one of those skills that can make you stand out from the other candidates out there.
Flexibility is so important in the travel industry. If you are flexible, you are also versatile, resilient and responsive to change. It means you can adapt to unexpected changes and demands in the workplace, whether that’s sudden surges of workloads, issues requiring urgent solutions, or an unpredictable event, such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Remember, we cannot always predict when changes such as the global pandemic will happen.
Flexible workers are highly prized by managers and business leaders. These people can help stabilise situations when a crisis arises. They help the company achieve goals and objectives and would sometimes go the extra mile to support colleagues who need help. So, if you want to achieve success in your career in luxury travel, you should be flexible.
4.Make Sure You Know the Values of the Company
It’s always a good idea to work for a company that shares your values because you cannot give your best to an organisation that goes against your values. So, once you find the right company to work for, the first step is to know the company’s values.
All travel firms and companies will have core values or principles that serve as the basis for the way they do their business. Different companies may refer to their core values differently, but these values play an important role, regardless of the terminologies used. The company’s core values encapsulate how employees are expected to do their jobs, build relationships with colleagues, and interact with and serve clients.
Aside from ensuring that the company has values that align with your own, knowing the company values can help improve your chances of getting the job. Expert luxury travel recruitment consultants, Lightning Travel Recruitment know all too well recruiters will specifically ask you during interviews about their company values and promote value alignment before getting to the interview. Knowing and relating to your chosen company’s values can help you prove to the interviewer that you are genuinely interested in working for them.
5.Show a Passion for Travel and a Desire to Learn
Another tip to getting a career in luxury travel is to demonstrate your passion for travel and a desire to learn during job interviews. But do not just talk about your travel experiences. You should also outline the things you have learned from your travels and how that new knowledge can help you out on the job.
Travelling involves lots of communication, whether ordering food from a restaurant or asking for directions from locals. Now that you have successfully communicated with strangers in an unfamiliar culture and language, communicating with people in your workplace will be a walk in the park. So, try to highlight this aspect during your job interview. Emphasising that meeting many people has turned you into an excellent communicator and bartering in local markets has made you a master negotiator, and that’s good for business.
Another skill you can demonstrate during the interview is your willingness to think outside the box. Travelling can be very exhausting since you may need to alter your plans and look for new ways of doing things, such as how to get from one place to another without getting lost. Try to think of a situation during your travel when things didn’t go as planned and use that to demonstrate your ability to quickly adapt to situations while finding creative solutions.
