travelBulletin

Marketing, sales and presentation skills were the top three areas that staff seek to develop in the next 12 months as revealed in travelBulletin and Travel Daily‘s annual salary & employment survey for 2017.

The survey, conducted by industry specialist Stollznow Research polled close to 1,200 participants across the travel industry and also showed preferences for the development of computing and software skills, customer service and business operations ahead of accounting, conflict resolution and human resource management.

Only 16% of respondents to the survey declared no intention for skills improvement over the year ahead.

When viewed by industry sector, the data indicates those within travel retail that sales, customer service and accounting are the skills earmarked for development.

In wholesale, marketing was the clear preference, with 41% of respondents looking to boost their skills in this area and for aviation it was presentation skills that topped respondents’ preferences.

Those working in the cruise industry saw the need to develop both marketing and business operations skills.

Marketing was also the clear preference when looking at levels of seniority.

 

48% of respondents that listed themselves as chairman, CEO, managing director, director, general manager and senior management that had chalked up 11 to 20 years of service all expressed the need to develop more marketing related skills.

Maxine Wiggs, director at Resource-Hub is seeing a spike in demand with clients tending to outsource training and development, particularly around the field of marketing.

“I regularly see travel businesses struggling to navigate, for example, the contemporary landscape of content marketing. So it doesn’t surprise me to see Senior and Middle Management, in particular, looking for those skills.”

“When you look at those areas of development, it’s a fair representation of where our industry is headed,” Wiggs added.

Full results and a written report are available for purchase by emailing [email protected] or by calling 1300 799 220.

Subscribe To travelBulletin

Name(Required)