Developing Skills through Work Experience in Travel and Tourism

As well as giving you a feel for a job in the travel or tourism industry, work experience provides a strong and deep foundation upon which to build life-long career skills. Working with real life situations and problems requires organisation and self-motivation, whilst working as part of a team will enhance communications skills. Though perhaps overwhelming at first, your work experience will teach and help to develop a multitude of key skills that will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life.

Work experience places you on the front line of the travel and tourism industry, providing you with the opportunity to view first-hand how it functions. Whether you are marketing exotic destinations on social media, or assisting in writing the website copy for a new product, you are constantly learning about the role travel and tourism plays. Working within the industry means you will have an inside insight and understanding, which will be very attractive to future employers and help you stand out. Another great benefit is that you will also learn office skills and commercial awareness, both of which are vital skills.

Show employers that you have enthusiasm and commitment for their industry and you can only benefit. A new position will always be unchartered territory and a step outside of your comfort zone, but rise to the challenge and it will show maturity and a professional attitude. The variety of work in the travel and tourism industry offers a fantastic opportunity to provide future employers with examples of how you developed these skills. Volunteer your time to projects that interest you and broaden your horizons, while getting a good reputation with your colleagues at the same time.

Language and dialect are as important to the travel industry as the sun is to white sandy beaches. The ability to speak a different language makes you hugely useful to a travel tourism company and can even result in you being offered the opportunity to liaise with resorts abroad. If you already speak a language, then pat yourself on the back, keep practising and challenge yourself with another. With exposure to other languages and the chance to practise with colleagues you’ll soon gain confidence and be one of the locals.

Soak up all the different cultures that surrounds the job in travel or tourism and use it to develop your foundation of knowledge. Show an open-mindedness and curiosity for other communities’ traditions, as working within the travel industry may require you to communicate with offices overseas. Knowing a little about their culture will make your interaction more enjoyable, while understanding their perspective may also help smooth the way when it comes to problem solving. See the world from another’s point of view and you already have a key skill needed for a job in travel and tourism.