Trade opts for backpackers to fill gap in skills shortages

Recruitment problems by Philip Whiteley

Trade opts for backpackers to fill gap in skills shortages

Travellers offer unique insight into tourist destinations

BACKPACKERS are providing the solution to the industry’s skills shortages, exhibitors to Travel 2000 report.

The continuing popularity of touring round the world – despite recent tragedies such as the hostel fire in Australia – provides a pool of degree-educated people who have priceless knowledge of tourist destinations. This is helping to mitigate the dearth of people with recognised qualifications or industry experience.

Travel 2/4 personnel manager Tina Crowe said: “We are looking to recruit people who have not been through a tourism course but who have travelled.”

Seasoned travellers can provide a unique insight into helping customer service. “They have first-hand experience and they can tell the agent the sort of destinations a client would like to visit and where they would like to stay,” added Crowe.

Their personal qualities can be an attraction, she added. “If someone has gone off and travelled, they are quite independent; more mature maybe and have just a bit more practical experience.”

In previous years, Travel 2/4 has had a policy of only appointing people with a relevant qualification, such as a Btec or GNVQ in travel. But this year it has changed its approach, partly because there simply are not enough people with the qualifications. The company has its own training programme for recruits.

Travellers will be recruited for the London reservations office of Travel 2/4, where an extra 10 staff are needed, and potentially the inclusive tours department.

Travel industry recruitment specialist New Frontiers confirmed the trend. Managing director Julia Fewell said: “Some of the companies we recruit for do not necessarily look for industry experience, but for first-hand experience of Africa because they have backpacked across it.”

Such people can be of particular help in putting together tailor-made packages, she added. New Frontiers has pioneered a database which tracks people as both potential employees and customers throughout their working lives. This broadens the range of potential recruits to the sector, Fewell added.

Back on track: many employers consider first-hand experience as important as industry knowledge