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Who is a Travel Planner?
Once a year, go someplace you've never been before~ Dalai Lama
A travel planner is a professional who assists clients or people in planning and organising their trips. He or she is responsible for making arrangements for the client's travel requirements such as reservations, booking flights, and arranging transport. A travel planner may also visit the holiday destinations and resorts to help the clients make informed decisions.
In a career as a travel planner, he or she must design cost-effective travel packages according to the client's needs and budget and provide the best recommendations to them. The travel planner oversees the negotiations for the accommodation, transportation, rental companies, tour guides and restaurants for the clients to get the maximum benefits of trips.
Quick Facts for Travel Planner
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Industry
Tourism
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Average Salary in India
₹31513.5
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Suitable for
Male, Female
A career as a travel planner is suitable for everyone regardless of gender. Whether a person is male, female or belongs to any other gender can opt for this career. There is no gender-based restriction in this career.
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Any special needs
Yes
A career as a travel planner is suitable for an individual with special needs. Several companies provide a desk-based job role. An individual with special needs can find a job in travel consultancy services.
Table of Contents for Travel Planner
What is the role of Travel Planner?
Travel Planner develops and manages the travel program including the travel plans, budgets, discussions with clients and bookings. He or she is required to research to gather detailed information about travelling tickets, hotels, modes of transportation, restaurants, cafes, and others. The Travel Planner is also responsible for staying updated with the latest travel trends and knowledge.
The travel planner roles and responsibilities include creating the itinerary for the clients and may also visit the hotels, resorts and restaurants to inspect the service quality. He or she explains the information to the clients about the various suitable options for sightseeing locations, flights, transportation, and accommodation. A travel planner also develops and implements policies and procedures to reduce travel risks.
Travel Arrangements
The travel planner roles and responsibilites are to make travel arrangements. He or she obtains information from clients and makes arrangements as per the client's preferences and budget.
Designing Packages
A travel planner job description involves designing travel packages that are cost effective and suit the client's requirements and budget. He or she is also required to record and update the client information in a database.
Explaining Options
A travel planner is required to explain to the client the various options for transportation and accommodation. He or she provides them with the details of flights, car rentals, routes, tourism attractions and other necessary information.
Advising
A travel planner advises clients on travel packages that suit their requirements and budget. He or she also provides recommendations on travel safety, visas and immunisations.
Customer Support
The role of a travel planner is to book excursions, flights and hotels. He or she arranges transport as per the client's specifications. A travel planner negotiates with hotels, rental companies, tour guides and operators for the best rates.
Types of a Travel Planner
In this section, we have listed several types of travel planners or career options related to them with their job descriptions.
Tour Operator: A tour operator works in a travel organisation or a company. His or her job involves buying travel components separately from suppliers and combining them to design a travel package to be sold directly to clients with the travel organisation’s price tag.
Corporate Travel Planner: A corporate travel planner makes travel arrangements for employees of corporate companies. He or she either works in a travel agency or expenditure department. His or her role involves managing personnel travel details, arranging travel visas, initiating the reimbursement to those who travelled for official work and making arrangements by themselves.
What is the workplace/work environment of Travel Planner like?
A travel planner usually works in an office environment. He or she may often work remotely as most of the working hours are spent on the phone and computer. A travel planner's work environment is similar to busy offices or call centres that are noisy and crowded. A travel planner may often face stress during travel emergencies and changes in schedules.
Does Travel Planner require travelling?
Likely
A travel planner may often visit hotels and resorts to check on the services that will be provided to clients. He or she may often work from remote areas or the comfort of home.
Time Pressure
Likely
Yes, it requires frequent time pressure in the career of travel planners. They are required to immediately provide details to clients and necessary customer support, to resolve their queries. Travel planners may often be required to work overtime during the summer holidays when most people are likely to plan vacations.
How to become a Travel Planner?
Steps to become a Travel Planner
A Travel Planner is a professional who organises vacations and travel packages for people. If you are passionate and enjoy working with clients to organise vacations and helping people to plan their trips then this career is a great option for you. In this section, we have provided step-by-step guidance on how to become a Travel Planner in India.
What are the skills and qualities required to become a/an Travel Planner?
Do you know about the minimum requirements to become a travel planner? One needs to be proficient in several areas to efficiently perform daily activities. We have provided below travel planner skills that are considered crucial in the resume of a travel planner.
Communication Skills: A travel planner has to communicate with numerous people daily. He or she has to explain to them about travel packages and all the options concerning travel and accommodation and other travel-related queries. Therefore, a travel planner must have excellent communication skills.
Organising Skills: A travel planner must possess organising skills. He or she has to design numerous travel packages based on the client's specifications and budgets. A travel planner has to update the information of numerous clients in databases and provide them with accurate information which requires organising skills.
Multilingual Skills: Language skills play a crucial role in a travel planner's career. Being multilingual increases the chances of growth in this career and working with bigger travel organisations. If travel planners are proficient in communicating in other languages as well it will be easy to make travel arrangements easily for foreign clients.
Interpersonal Skills: A travel planner stays involved in multiple tasks. He or she has to communicate effectively internally within the team as well as with other stakeholders. Interpersonal skills are crucial for the travel planner role to avoid blunders caused by miscommunication.
Customer Support: A travel planner has to provide necessary information to individuals and resolve their queries through phone calls, emails and other modes of communication. He or she has to immediately take action on complaints made by clients.
Which certifications and internships can be helpful in becoming Travel Planner?
Aspiring individuals may opt for the certification courses provided below to upgrade their skills and knowledge for a travel planner career.
Introduction to the Travel & Tourism Industry: Passport to the World
Professional Certificate in Tourism and Travel Agency Management
Internship Availability
Aspiring individuals may find travel planning internships through various job portals such as Internshala, Lets Intern, Simplyhired, Instahyre, Naukri.com and Monster. There are several responsibilities assigned to tour and travel interns or travel planning interns. The travel planning interns are required to provide clients with detailed information willing to travel to domestic destinations.
The travel planner interns are required to connect with clients through various modes of communication such as phone calls, email and WhatsApp. They are required to send messages to clients for booking confirmation, invoices as well as post-holiday feedback.
Travel Planner Jobs and Salaries
Junior Travel Planner
Contractual/Permanent
- Average Salary 21360
Job Description
A junior travel planner work responsibilities include research on travel planning and itinerary customisation. He or she drafts service contracts and provides counselling to clients. A junior travel planner is also responsible for providing customer service. It includes building rapport with individual customers to make new clients and maintain a customer base.
Salary Description
A junior travel planner could earn more than Rs. 21360 per month. He or she could easily make more than an estimated Rs. 250,000 per annum.
Senior Travel Planner
Contractual/Permanent
- Average Salary 41667
Job Description
A senior travel planner is responsible for providing necessary support to clients in planning and booking travel. He or she facilitates ticket purchases for transportation, makes reservations and rents cars for clients. A senior travel planner maintains a high level of professionalism by maintaining client confidentiality and solving client's queries on time.
Salary Description
A senior travel planner could easily earn Rs. 500,000 per annum. The average estimated salary of a senior travel planner is Rs. 41,667.
What is the job outlook for Travel Planner?
Nowadays, with the use of the internet, anyone can research travel destinations and make travel arrangements on their own. This has somehow resulted in lesser job growth for travel planners. Individuals who specialise in making travel arrangements for specific destinations have better job prospects. With experience in the industry, one can find extremely good opportunities and higher pay packages.
Frequently Asked Questions for Travel Planner
Que. What does a travel planner do?
Ans.A travel planner is a professional who is involved in travel planning and is also called a trip planner. He to she is primarily involved in directly dealing with clients in terms of booking flights, and train tickets, booking hotels, and preparing itineraries in general.
Que. Is travel planner a good career?
Ans.A travel planner is increasingly becoming a popular career, especially among those who love planning and travelling. Several people have started to opt for unconventional careers, and travel planning is one of them. Hence, there has been a rise in many people who are becoming travel or trip planners.
Que. What are top recruiters of travel planners?
Ans.Top recruiters of travel planners are Cox and Kings, Travelguru, Thomas Cook, Expedia, MakeMy Trip, Yatra, Goibibo and Tripoto.
Que. What are top colleges of travel planners?
Ans.The top colleges of travel planners are the University Institute of Hotel Management and Tourism, Punjab University, Chandigarh, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Punjabi University, Patiala, NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata, Al Azhar College of Arts and Science, Idukki and Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.
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Did you know?
Fact 1
The U.S. travel market makes one-third of its earning by reservations by travel agents, according to a report published in the New York Times.
Fact 2
Osaka in Japan is the fastest-growing destination among globally emerging hotspots.
Fact 3
One of every ten jobs is supported by the tourism industry that estimates 9.9 per cent of global employment.
Fact 4
China spends highest in tourism sector among the countries in the world.
