Profession travel agency manager

Travel agency managers are in charge of managing employees and activities of a travel agency. They organise, advertise and sell tourist offers and travel deals for specific regions.

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Personality Type

• Enterprising / Investigative

Knowledge

• Geographical areas relevant to tourism

  The field of tourism geography in Europe as well as the rest of the world in order to point out relevant tourism areas and attractions.

• Tourist resources of a destination for further development

  The study of touristic resources in a specific area and its potential for further development of new touristic services and events.

Skills

• Use global distribution system

  Operate a computer reservations system or a global distribution system to book or reserve transportations and accommodations.

• Motivate staff to reach sales targets

  Stimulate your staff to achieve sales goals set by the management.

• Recruit employees

  Hire new employees by scoping the job role, advertising, performing interviews and selecting staff in line with company policy and legislation.

• Negotiate supplier arrangements

  Reach an agreement with the supplier upon technical, quantity, quality, price, conditions, storage, packaging, send-back and other requirements related to the purchasing and delivering process.

• Apply strategic thinking

  Apply generation and effective application of business insights and possible opportunities, in order to achieve competitive business advantage on a long-term basis.

• Supervise crew

  Supervise and observe the behaviour of employees.

• Monitor financial accounts

  Handle financial administration of your department, keep the costs down to only necessary expenses and maximise the revenues of your organisation.

• Perform market research

  Gather, assess and represent data about target market and customers in order to facilitate strategic development and feasibility studies. Identify market trends.

• Maximise sales revenues

  Increase possible sales volumes and avoid losses through cross-selling, upselling or promotion of additional services.

• Implement marketing strategies

  Implement strategies which aim to promote a specific product or service, using the developed marketing strategies.

• Implement strategic planning

  Take action on the goals and procedures defined at a strategic level in order to mobilise resources and pursue the established strategies.

• Plan digital marketing

  Develop digital marketing strategies for both leisure and business purposes, create websites and deal with mobile technology and social networking.

• Build a network of contacts with suppliers of tourist services

  Establish a widely spread network of suppliers in the tourism industry. Prepare the best possible package and tourist services.

• Create annual marketing budget

  Make the calculation of both the income and expenditures that are expected to be paid over the coming year concerning the marketing related activities such as advertising, selling and delivering products to people.

• Handle customer complaints

  Administer complaints and negative feedback from customers in order to address concerns and where applicable provide a quick service recovery.

• Prepare travel packages

  Make holiday and travel packages ready and arrange, travel, accommodation, logistics and services such as chartered airplanes, taxis, car rental or excursions for clients.

• Conduct search engine optimisation

  Execute optimal marketing research and strategies on search engine processes, also known as search engine marketing (SEM), in order to increase online traffic and website exposure.

• Manage budgets

  Plan, monitor and report on the budget.

• Oversee travel arrangements

  Make sure that travel arrangements run according to plan and ensure effective and satisfactory service, accommodation and catering.

• Manage staff

  Manage employees and subordinates, working in a team or individually, to maximise their performance and contribution. Schedule their work and activities, give instructions, motivate and direct the workers to meet the company objectives. Monitor and measure how an employee undertakes their responsibilities and how well these activities are executed. Identify areas for improvement and make suggestions to achieve this. Lead a group of people to help them achieve goals and maintain an effective working relationship among staff.

• Comply with food safety and hygiene

  Respect optimal food safety and hygiene during preparation, manufacturing, processing, storage, distribution and delivery of food products.

• Set up pricing strategies

  Apply methods used for setting product value taking into consideration market conditions, competitor actions, input costs, and others.

• Measure customer feedback

  Evaluate customer's comments in order to find out whether customers feel satisfied or dissatisfied with the product or service.

• Seek innovation in current practices

  Search for improvements and present innovative solutions, creativity and alternative thinking to develop new technologies, methods or ideas for and answers to work-related problems.

• Coordinate operational activities

  Synchronise activities and responsibilities of the operational staff to ensure that the resources of an organisation are used most efficiently in pursuit of the specified objectives.

• Implement sales strategies

  Carry out the plan to gain competitive advantage on the market by positioning the company's brand or product and by targeting the right audience to sell this brand or product to.

• Maintain relationship with suppliers

  Build a lasting and meaningful relationship with suppliers and service providers in order to establish a positive, profitable and enduring collaboration, co-operation and contract negotiation.

• Identify customer's needs

  Use appropriate questions and active listening in order to identify customer expectations, desires and requirements according to product and services.

Optional knowledge and skills

Source: Sisyphus ODB