Smart SkillS
Tread the path of success
Usha Albuquerque

Travel and tourism is possibly the world's largest industry.That's not surprising, as it is summer, and everyone is travelling. Almost 5 million Indians go abroad every year, and almost 3 million tourists come to visit India. And of course there are millions of Indians just travelling around the country, whether for business, holiday, study or pilgrimage. So despite war, terrorism, epidemics and other global catastrophies, the tourism industry has continued to flourish. Hotels and travel agencies now provide a wider range of in-house facilities and incentives in order to stay ahead in this keenly competitive field.

Dream merchants

Today's travel agent, however, does not sell plane or train tickets, he/she sells dreams! As more and more people buy their tickets through the Net, travel agents have graduated to marketing of tours — whether the arduous spiritual pilgrimage to Amarnath, a health tour to study yoga, or a visit to Bollywood. Work in the travel and tourism industry is to provide a holiday with a difference.

Today, this industry is largely concerned with the marketing of new and exotic kinds of holidays and destinations. They are basically retailers, who plan and sell trips to individuals or groups. They specialise in special interest trips, and book passages for air, rail, sea and road travel, arrange hotel reservations or other accommodation and hire cars and coaches for domestic and international travellers. Some specialise in areas like business trips, group tours or conferences. These could be for individuals or groups, and could include incoming tourists from abroad, outbound tours to foreign destinations or domestic travellers. They also offer special interest packages that range from Himalayan trekking expeditions to golf, wildlife to medical tourism. Some tour operators specialise in adventure or other special interest tours, and work the entire itinerary accordingly.

These are becoming very popular, particularly with first-time travellers, or groups who would like to take the advantage of shared costs and special packages. Many travel companies handle such tours, and are on the look out to plan newer itineraries to market. From Alaskan cruises to bungee jumping in New Zealand, destination tours make up a large part of travel bookings. A good knowledge of travel destinations, modes of travel and marketing skills are needed to handle such tours.

These are popular among the youth, foreigners and even corporates. Adventure could include those requiring specialised skills and training, such as mountaineering, rock climbing, bungee jumping, wind-surfing or heli-skiing, and those open to all — river rafting, trekking, camping, sailing, skiing and other such sports. The specialised sports require trained personnel to handle and plan a tour keeping in mind age groups and their physical fitness. More and more corporates are organisaing adventure tours for groups of employees, both for recreation and motivation and leadership training exercises.

Gaining importance is the new area of medical or healthcare tourism. With relatively high- quality and low-cost medical treatment available, India is being promoted as a cost-effective destination for the medical treatment of patients from the developed world. Many from the Middle East and Africa are already regulars on this medical route. Health resorts and spaas are also being promoted and marketed as destinations for relaxation and rejuvenation. The ayurvedic massages of Kerala and traditional health treatments are now popular in many other parts of the country.

Sports Tourism

Sports tourism, especially golf, is fast catching up as an exciting reason to plan a holiday. Hundreds have flown off to watch the thrilling World Cup matches in Germany and to soak in the football fever, many are also in the West Indies to watch the cricket, while many Japanese and Korean tourist visit India, just to play golf!

Wildlife Tourism is still quite a draw in India for those wanting to experience proximity with nature and animals. Although with the sad figures of missing tigers and extinction of many rare species, this may not be so attractive in a couple of years.

The traditional tourist sites, heritage and craft centres, forts, palaces continue to be a draw for tourists, as also the exotic Palace-on-Wheels for the more affluent traveller, and the toy train up to the hills of Darjeeling or the Nilgiris. Bollywood and a peek at the stars is another kind of holiday being aggressively sold to NRIs, while outbound domestic tourists seek out new pastures in remote countries, on cruise liners and for shopping.

In fact, as Destination India sells itself to the foreign and domestic tourist, it requires hundreds of intrepid travel professionals and enthusiasts willing to market its wide and multi-faceted attractions.

All such tours require professionals with wide knowledge and interest in the special tourism features, and the enthusiasm and marketing savvy to plan and organise a suitable package.

Spiritual Tourism

Spiritual or pilgrimages attract millions of people in this country, young and old, and willing to hazard many difficulties. Other than the visits to regular pilgrimage sites, holy places and temple towns, some tours even specialise in spiritual practices, yoga and meditation with stays in ashrams and spiritual healing centres. The Buddhist trail in Bihar is a major attraction for Buddhists from Japan, China and other countries of South-East Asia.

Courses available

While there are many who join the travel business after graduation without any formal training, and learn on the job, a course in travel and tourism is a definite advantage.There are courses at graduate and post-graduate level, with several universities introducing the subject as a degree programme. The minimum eligibility criteria for admission to travel and tourism courses at the undergraduate level is 10+2, while for postgraduate courses, the eligibility is graduation in any discipline. Fluency in at least one foreign language is also an advantage.

Several large travel agencies also offer short-term training programmes, and tend to absorb most of the candidates. Moreover, one can also gain these qualifications through correspondence courses.

The Indian Institute of Travel and Tourism Management (www.iitm.org) with centres in New Delhi, Gwalior and Bhubaneshwar is a premier institution for education and training in tourism. It offers basic courses in air travel, fares and ticketing, travel agency and tour operation management courses for graduates, as well as well as Bachelor in Tourism Management. Universities like Kurukshetra University, Madras University, Chennai, Bangalore University, Bangalore, Mumbai University and others also offer BA Tourism and Travel Management programmes, as also PG courses in travel management for graduates.

IGNOU offers a distance learning programme in travel and tourism. There are several polytechnics and travel institutes that also handle courses in tourism, providing theoretical and practical on-job training.

So if you have a passion for travel, and an interest in people, places and local customs and cuisine, you could build a fascinating career in tourism.

The writer is a noted career expert