GUILD of Business Travel Agents manager Mike Riddle has admitted that the shortage of good business travel consultants has made recruiting almost impossible.
Riddle said: “We have a people crisis when it comes to attracting the right type of employees into the business.
“Candidates need to have the right skills, including aircraft ticketing, computer skills as well as the ability to provide a good quality of customer service.”
OAGWorldwide sales director Andrew Burch said the problem was financial. “The travel agency world does not pay enough money and this is the problem.
“How the travel world is going to attract the best graduates in the milk round I don’t know because they just don’t pay enough,” he said.
Sabre Europe managing director David Brown said the problem stemmed from the fact that business travel agents were not taught the right things at college.
“Right now if you went and asked a consultant what they learned when they were at college, they would say they happen to know a lot of formats to gain access to mainframecomputers.
“They know 46 different codes to be able to book a hotel in Manchester, but what do they know about customerservice?”