Travel firms have been urged to review staff benefits to overcome recruitment challenges caused by low pay in the sector.
Uncompetitive pay and benefits remain a key reason businesses continue to struggle to recruit, despite salaries rising on average by a fifth since pre-Covid, according to employment experts.
They told a webinar hosted by C&M Travel Recruitment that remuneration packages remained one of the sector’s “biggest challenges”.
More: Comment: Travel salaries are going up and up – or are they?
Travel industry urged to address ‘very uncompetitive’ salaries
Average salaries rose 11.6% year on year to £34,156 in 2023 across the sector and were 21% higher than in 2019, according to C&M Travel Recruitment.
But managing director Barbara Kolosinska stressed average salaries were “not increasing evenly across the sector” with pay for those at the lower end (earning £22,001 to £29,999), up by just under 1% last year on 2022, and just 4.6% above 2019.
“We have a problem attracting people to the sector because of this issue,” she said, warning: “If we carry on doing this [paying less competitive salaries], we will lose talent.”
£34,156 Average salary across the travel sector in 2023
Source: C&M Travel Recruitment
Firms were encouraged to “constantly” monitor their remuneration packages – not just basic pay but staff benefits – to ensure they were competitive and kept pace with demand.
Examples of “standout” benefits, beyond more standard advantages such as discounted healthcare, were cited as days off for wellbeing, birthdays or fundraising.
Kolosinska added: “The benefits are what a lot of candidates are looking for. Salaries alone are not going to make people join because they are looking at the whole package on offer.”
HR expert Claire Steiner said firms should consider travel-related benefits, such as a travel fund.
“There is a reason why people want to work in travel: they want to travel. We are losing sight of that,” she said.
Travlaw head of employment Ami Naru said improving benefits was a “smart way” of improving the sector’s attractiveness.
“Sometimes companies cannot compete with salaries in other sectors. We need to encompass why people want to work in this industry,” she said.
Steiner said it was frustrating that travel companies spent a lot of money on marketing to clients but not potential employees.
She said: “We need to look at best practice and what others are doing to engage more with potential employees of the future. Let’s make sure our staff reviews are the same as the consumer reviews.”
More: Comment: Travel salaries are going up and up – or are they?
Travel industry urged to address ‘very uncompetitive’ salaries