Love to travel? Pursue a career in tourism
I wish to pursue travel and tourism for my bachelors. I want to know more about this industry and its career prospects. — Pratha Mathur
Tourism is a very wide field and the scope of employment is good given the current vibrant growth of the industry. There are government tourism departments, immigration and customs services, travel agencies, airlines, tour operators, hotels, airline catering, travel websites, guides, interpreters, tourism promotion and sales that employ those qualified in the field. Job prospects are now greatest in travel agencies and tour operators, and in self employment, particularly if you can find a unique niche in the kind of service you provide, which could include special interest packages that range from film location tours, or adventure tours for skiing, river-rafting or wildlife, and so on. Every day the newspapers are full of attractive offers for travel packages, tours and enticing vacation options. There are hundreds of websites with apps and social media messages. All such ventures provide avenues for those looking for a career in travel and tourism.
There are diploma and certificate programmes in tourism, travel ticketing, tour guide training and tourism management. The time span for these courses generally ranges from two or six months to a duration of one year. You will learn about the method of booking and reserving tickets for scheduled flights, and also information to help guide the customer in planning their itinerary and making other necessary arrangements for the travel. The longer duration diploma course in travel management provides you with complete knowledge of the travel and hospitality industry, while the tour guide training courses are conducted by the tourism offices of government of India, and some travel institutes. You can also learn a foreign language for a successful career in travel and tourism. You can take up any of the courses on offer – many of which also include some practical job experience – and complete a degree side by side through distance learning.
Once you have gained experience in this field, you can also
look forward to establishing your own travel agency. It is an advantage to have access to a wide range of information and data on transportation and destinations, be good at planning and time management, as well as be resourceful and adaptable. I am pursuing a BTech in computer science engineering. My campus placements will be conducted in the next six months. I am confused about what to opt for because I am not that good in programming. Is there any other option available for me apart from programming?
— Neha Saxena A career in IT is considered one of the most high-paying jobs and is full of opportunities; particularly when India’s prowess in information technology industry is recognised across the globe. Computer engineers have plenty of options to choose from such as design, development, assembly, manufacture and maintenance, etc, as also networking, database management etc. The IT field is growing fast. Not only are there jobs in the area of networking, but also in digital technologies related to mobile phone apps creation and development, web development, and so on, with possibly newer options available by the time you are ready to start working. If you do not feel confident with your degree training, you can consider enlarging your computer skills through certifications courses at computer institutes in areas such as networking, database administration, cyber security, as well as other computer languages and skills, including scripting languages like Perl, Python etc.
Send your queries at hteducation@hindustantimes.com or to Career Counselling, HT Education, 1st floor, HT House, 18-20, KG Marg, New Delhi110001. The columnist is director of Careers Smart, and author of the Penguin India Career Guides Vol 1 and 2