Careers

Quick Tip: view profiles of GTTP program graduates.

Introduction

Your career in Travel & Tourism can take you to a job working outside all day in a national park, or a job working with computers to schedule airline flights, or a job helping people decide where to go on their vacation, or a job managing a retail store that sells to visitors coming to your city. The opportunities are varied and interesting. Each country is different in terms of its specific employment opportunities, but Travel & Tourism is one of those industries where you can find work in many different countries if you have the right skills.

You can go to our Global Partner web sites and see their current career opportunities.

Whatever your preferences are for the kind of work you want to do, you will find there is a job in Travel & Tourism that meets those preferences — with a few exceptions.

The global industry is very competitive; everyone wants the same tourist or business traveler to come to their city, or their hotel, or to use their airline. This means that having well-trained employees is critical to success. Many governments have realized that the Travel & Tourism industry is a growing one, and that their country’s development is tied to having a strong and high quality Travel & Tourism industry. For this reason governments are now supporting specialized education programs like the GTTP.

GTTP LinkedIn Group

Students and new grads are the fastest growing demographic on LinkedIn. It makes sense because students now know that they need to be active on LinkedIn to create an impressive digital presence and to find internships and first jobs. Join the GTTP LinkedIn Group.

Resources for Finding a Career in Travel and Tourism

If you are interested in this industry, but are not studying in a tourism education program, contact the GTTP Director in your country to see if you are eligible to attend their educational program. Check the links on our member country web sites to see if they lead you to career information and opportunities.

Employment Statistics:
Governments collect information on jobs and job growth. The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) works with governments and academic researchers to determine the impact of Travel & Tourism on the economy globally and by region.

The outlook for career opportunities in jobs related to the Travel & Tourism Industry is excellent if present trends continue.

• WTTC forecasts that Travel & Tourism Demand will grow at a rate of 4.3 percent per year between 2008 and 2017. Another way of looking at this number is to realize that a 4.3 annual growth rate means that overall demand will be twice what it is today in about 15 years. That in turn means that there will be many more opportunities for in the years to come for people entering the industry.

When WTTC conducts research into employment related to Travel & Tourism it looks at both direct employment and indirect employment. The industry touches all sectors of the economy.

• Direct employment includes a wide variety of skills, ranging from front desk employees at a hotel to the accountants in the back office of the same hotel; from sales and marketing personnel at a travel services company to the computer specialists that keep that company’s technology working. The WTTC expected that in 2007 the industry directly accounted for more than 76.1 million jobs worldwide, or almost 3 percent of total employment.
• Broader employment in what the WTTC calls “The Travel & Tourism Economy,” is equally wide-ranging. Tourism creates demand for planes, ships, and hotels, which then have to be built. Restaurants buy food from growers. In 2007 the WTTC estimated that the Travel & Tourism Economy was responsible for almost 231.2 million jobs or more than 1 out of every 12 jobs.

WTTC conducts research that examines many aspects of the Tourism & Travel Industry, and includes statistics for many countries. You can explore WTTC’s research by going to the WTTC web site, http://www.wttc.org.