BootsnAll Travel Community

Has anyone considered working in travel? It's a 6 trillion dollar industry, even a little piece of that is pretty nice.

That't the problem, you'd be getting a very "little" piece of the pie. I worked for an event planning company that focused on insentive trips. The pay was so bad that after my bills (student loans, phone, rent, utilities) were paid I sometimes didn't get to eat dinner. At one point I couldn't even go out and buy a beer for several weeks straight. It took me 3 months to save up $40 to buy new sneekers. Even people who had worked for that company for 10+ years weren't making 40k a year. I worked with travel, but I couldn't afford to travel. Now I have a job in finance and not only can I afford to travel but I'm putting away almost 2k a month for my rtw.

Interesting as I've been considering trying to get certified in accounting or general finance so I can travel and live the way I want.
Have a degree in the travel industry. Yes, lots of low paid jobs. If you can stick it out, live in a shack or a car, and get promoted, then you're fine. It's those entry level deals in some companies that are killers. Same with foodservice, once you've moved up to executive something you're good. I don't mean to put the industry down, there are lots of good stuff, but even more low-paying crappy hours types of things.
Although it is my favorite industry to work in. There are jobs that let you travel, I've met a lot of famous folks, interesting things happen, etc.
But I have such a high locus of control I'll be better off doing my life as I want it to be and not rely on a job to get me places.

Unless you get lucky, have you're career path supertracked out, etc. It is possible to do well. Just make sure you know what you want to do and try to get some experience as soon as possible(if you're going to school in it). My mistake was trying to get a feel for everything before deciding. Then when graduation came, along with the "depression" of 2003, other people had more focus and experience. But then again, in '03 you couldn't even get a job scrubbing toliets it was so bad.

There are a TON of different facets to the industry though that you may never even realize.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff W:

There are a TON of different facets to the industry though that you may never even realize.

This is the key - I've said this before on here, but keep in mind there are a LOT of aspects to the tourism industry. Legal, accounting, grant writing, tour guides, travel agents, flight attendants, hotel concierges... so many options. Most of the major travel associations (NTA, USTOA, SYTA) have foundations, or have "adopted" a foundation, so you can even work in the non-profit sector in the tourism industry (as I do). Lots of options

I think the travel industry is generally poorly paid and people tend to work in it for the love of the job (particularly anything to do with guiding).

The trick is to set your own travel business up and let others do the hard work!