TRAVEL ’99, the only careers fair dedicated to travel, is set to become a regular annual event in the north of England following the success of the first ever Manchester-based show.
Nearly 4,000 people visited Travel ’99 at Manchester’s G-Mex centre on March 23 and 24.
Organiser Ian Burke said:”It was immensely successful in terms of visitor numbers and the quality and relevance of visitors.”
The majority of the 22 exhibitors expect to recruit new staff after handing out hundreds of application forms during the two-day event.
Thomas Cook regional personnel manager Caroline Wood has already set up 35 interviews with prospective candidates based on initial screenings at the Manchester Travel ’99 fair.
“We probably have another 40 applications that we are currently sifting through, some of whom will be suitable for management positions,” said Wood.
Lunn Poly, which was exhibiting for the first time, was also impressed with the level of interest.
Personnel officer Justine Bates said:”I was pleasantly surprised. We had in excess of 200 applications completed, and gave out the same number again.”
Cheshire-based Cresta Holidays, which has reported difficulties in finding suitable staff in the past, said the show was a big bonus for the company.
Cresta deputy general manager Jacqui Woodward said:”We were probably looking to place 10-15 specific vacancies and I am confident we will fill them. We are very pleased with that.”
Initial figures from the organisers indicate that around one-third of the visitors were students.
The other two-thirds were people already working in the industry or people looking for their first break in travel.
Co-op Travelcare personnel officer Jane Collins said: “We were approached by a lot of people currently working in other sectors. But that is not a problem for us as we are very happy to recruit non-travel people because they usually have quite good transferable skills that we can build on because we have good training programmes,” said Collins.
l The next Travel ’99 recruitment show will be held in London in September.