Career prospects in travel and tourism sectors

By: Prof (Dr) Manohar Sajnani

How to turn your love for travel into a professional rewarding career with unlimited Pathways to success

Why a career in Travel and Tourism Management?

If your answer to the Question “Do you have big dreams & even bigger plans?” excites you, a degree in Travel and Tourism Management is suitably ideal answer/option for your bright future. What makes Tourism & Travel an exciting career option? Yes, the prospects and promising future this industry offers due to its resilience & adaptability to changing global trends make it a perfect career choice for years & decades come.

What does Travel and Tourism Management Program has to offer?

The travel & tourism industry for any country holds greater social, economic, environmental & political significance. Tourism not only contributes to a country’s GDP, playing a major role in local & global economies to generate both direct & indirect employment, solve balance of receipts issues, leads to regional development through infrastructural development and India is no exception. Thus, when you think about your career after 10+2 or after graduation, amongst many other options, one exciting & rewarding field is a degree in tourism & travel management. You just need to possess passion for travel, you enjoy interacting with people from diverse cultural backgrounds and is ready to offer service with a smile to create memorable experiences for travelers with a strong belief in “Athiti Devo Bhava”.

The Travel and Tourism management program of any leading University including Amity University shall broadly covers major study areas including Tourism & Travel Management, Travel Agency & Tour Operations, Meetings, Conventions & Event Planning, Hotels & Restaurants Management, Destination Planning and Management and Tourism Business Administration. Thus the career offers global pathways to pursue not only the focus of one or all of all of these study areas as the deciding factor and which can also help you in identifying and selecting your place of study for instance at Amity Institute of Travel & Tourism in addition to  these study areas strong thrust is also on greater Practical & Experiential learning of students through deeper & strong industry strong bonding particularly with buddies alumni ready to support new entrants in every possible way . Through each of the course offered in Tourism Program you will not only be able to gain insight into latest industry trends but will also be able to develop leadership & communication skills to handle real world situations.

In addition programmes also offer a cutting edge advantage to every enrolled student through their sharp focus on areas like sustainability, experiential learning, emerging Technology Integration, Culinary Tourism, Retail Management, People Management, Facility Planning , Revenue Management etc.

What kind of Curriculum should you look for?

As aspirant for tourism & travel management program you shall look for a dynamic & exciting curriculum with focus on holistic development for instance one of the course  offered at Amity University is in collaboration with industry partners on Meetings, Conferences & Event Planning to every students of Tourism & Hospitality Management, student learns each aspects of planning, budgeting & execution part of organizing the Meetings, Conferences & Events, both with the help of Internal & External faculty, invited from industry as well as engaging students as volunteers in live projects. Similarly, students also shall look for courses embedded with practical exposure and hands on training in Travel Agency & Tour Operations, Tour Planning, Airport & Ground Services Management, Cruise Line Operations destination management, conference and conventions planning and management etc. as is offered at Amity University through a well-defined Program Model Framework.

Further, at Amity University with the use of extensive analytics, students are also able to learn ways to analyse various types of data and solve problems as well as to present them through their effective communication skills.

What are various Career Options/Job Roles for you in Travel and Tourism sectors?

Students after completion of their graduation /post-graduation in Tourism & Travel Management are open for recruitment by leading Travel Agencies, Tour & Travel Companies, Event & Conference Management Companies, Destination Management Companies, Hotels & Restaurants, IT Solution Providing Companies, Retail Management Groups, Facility Planning Companies, Cruise Liners, Airlines & Airport operation companies, and with many more similar stakeholders of the trade.

The career growth with tourism & travel sector company is very fast for example any travel and tourism management graduate starting career as Operations Executive/ Management Trainee or as a Travel Consultant /Destination Management Executive /Consultant, Operations Executive, Product Development Executive ,Customer Support Executive move through hierarchy as Assistant Manager /Dy. Manager /Manager as per ones’ own capability & ability to learn and handle difficult challenges associated with each role. Further, growth also depends upon and how they are able to identify and use the right mentorships & guidance available in their workplace which is very well used by Amity Students as  they are exposed to industry mentoring system all through the duration of program . As a result, each student is able to identify & connect with industry mentors for their professional development. It is true that Amity University graduates grow relatively faster due to their global exposure and continuous industrial training & interactions. Some of the sector specific roles and average starting salary is indicated below: –

List of Various Job Roles in Tourism and Travel sector

Why career opportunities in Tourism Industry are on Rise?

With the continued positive momentum and growth trends, travel & tourism sector is poised to add 5.82 crore jobs across various segments of the sector by 2033.

The rise in number & diversity of career opportunities in tourism industry can be attributed to improved accessibility of destinations, enhanced affordability & disposable income of a larger section of middle-income group which had opened up now travel markets and destinations both for regional and international travel & tourism activities.

The recent government initiatives to promote tourism like PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation drive), UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) and development of Smart cities, has further fueled the growth of demand for tourism & leisure business. In other words, today the government and private sector are keen to invest heavily in tourism, infrastructure & marketing, which will not only enrich the sector but will also ensure a steady flow of career opportunities in Travel , Tourism & Hospitality sectors.

Further, technological advancements have disrupted the way travel experiences are researched, packaged & delivered, creating a new job role with technological skills as pre-requisite for customer service, online booking and digital marketing.

Additionally, growing emphasis on responsible /sustainable tourism has created the demand for a career in Environmental conservation, community development and sustainable development specialization

Recent growth and introduction of emerging technologies and AI has created jobs like big data analytics, machine learning specialists, deep learning specialist, data mining specialists, sentiments analyst etc. In consequent and response to these changing demand for skill sets, pathways/courses are offered at Amity University  to each student to enhance their employability for example to changing job market dynamics of niche tourism/experiential Tourism Specialist, Amity University has introduced Specialized courses in Sustainable Tourism , Digital & Social media, Basics of AI, Eco Tourism Disruptive Technologies, Meetings Conferences & Event Planning, Adventure Tourism, Culinary & Food Tourism, Restaurant & Wine Operations, Facility Planning etc.

What future holds for you as part of this vital sector?

India’s Tourism Sector, with rich Cultural & natural heritage, emerging as a global favorite destination is poised to be a key driver of economic growth, poverty alleviation & multi-level employment generation. India’s ambitious 14th 5-year plan (2022-27) to Boost tourism is the witness to the growing potential of this sector. In the 14^th Five Year Plan (2022-27). One of the major thrust areas of the plan is to develop human resources for tourism & hospitality sector in order to achieve the objective of delivering high quality visitor experience and to create unique innovative & diverse products for tourists as well as to train existing & potential employees of the sectors on sustainable practices in tourism development. As a result, allocation for this sector in annual budget for 2025-26 is Rs. 2541.06 crores for improving tourism infrastructure, developing skills & streamlining travel processes.

With economic growth, expanding middle class & favorable government policies , tourism sector in India is poised to experience rapid growth “ India is set to be among the top 10 destinations in the world and rapidly growing contribution of tourism sector to Indian Economy is expected to rise from current 7.9% to 10% “ said by Hon’ble Union Minister for Tourism & Culture, during his recent visit to Amity University, while addressing students of Tourism & Hospitality Management. He also mentioned that India has climbed to the 39^th positive in the world Economic Forum’s Travel & Tourism Development Index 2024.

Furthermore, India’s progress towards becoming a developed nation by 2047 is believed strongly to be supported by “Employment-Led Growth in Tourism” as this sector has created 7.6 crore jobs in 2023 and will create 61 lakh new jobs by 2034 with spending are anticipated to increase by one & half times to deliver the multiplier effect of each dollar /INR spent by visitors across the country.

BBA (Tourism Management) is a 03-year (06 semester) bachelor’s degree programme designed to equip students with a professional blend of academic and professional excellence and expertise to make them job ready. The minimum credit unit requirement for the program is 122 minimum credits. The programme also offers multiple entry and exit options as per NEP2020. A student can exit after the 1st year of the programme with a certificate and after the 2nd year of the programme with a Diploma and after the 3rd year with a bachelor’s degree BBA (Tourism Management).

BBA (Tourism Management Hons/ with Research) as per NEP 2020 is a four-year Degree programme with minimum 168 credit requirement. A student opting for BBA (TM Hons) has the choice of single specialization/Dual specialization, major with 01 minor specialization (both majors with equal credit weightage) which means degree signifies a deeper study with higher academic rigor compared to a regular bachelor’s degree.

In case of student opting for BBA (Tourism Management Hons with Research) 4th year of the programme is dedicated to Research on a subject of interest by the student (Research project/ Dissertation) providing with a more focused research experience. Post 04-year degree, as a result with Hons/Research student is eligible to register for PhD directly minimum eligibility requirement for this option is CGPA of 7.5 till 6^th semester of the programme and have earned minimum 122 credits till year 03 of the programme of the programme.

The writer is Dean, Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism and, Director, Amity Institute of Travel and Tourism, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India

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