travel specialist jobs nst

Opportunities for Travel Specialists

If you have already gained experience within the Travel Industry, a role within one of our commercial teams can help you progress your Travel Career.

Within our Commercial Departments we have a wealth of opportunities for Travel Product and Contracting Specialists, Air Reservations and Transport Specialists, Linguists and Destination Experts, as well as Marketing, Pricing, and Health and Safety Professionals.

Each of our roles and team members contribute to ensuring we create, source, deliver and evaluate the core elements that make up our Educational Tour packages for customers, ensuring what we provide not only meets the curriculum or study requirements, but are also safe, offer great value for money, and are a perfect fit for our travelling groups.

Starting with the Customer and working backwards....

Although not interacting with customers daily, everyone in our commercial departments makes each and every decision with the customer in mind.

Our Product and Marketing Specialists regularly speak to customer groups, education consultants, and review customer feedback to inform decisions about new product development, offers and promotions.

Our Contracts Managers and Destination Services Consultants work closely with suppliers, using their native language, as well as those of our European Suppliers to ensure our Vision is shared and understood, that great deals are negotiated, and fantastic, exclusive visits, accommodation and transport is available for our groups.

What careers exist within our Commercial Teams?

Jobs in our Product Team

Our Product Managers and Product Executives are responsible for using market information, customer feedback, and innovative thinking to develop the best school and student group tour experiences in the most relevant and popular destinations.

A typical day for one of our Product Team members may include the following:

  • Briefing our Contracts Managers on new product development requirements so they can source the best accommodation, visit and transport to match our customer expectations
  • Discussing market trends, and product positioning with our Pricing team to ensure our tour packages provide value for money, affordability and profitability
  • Developing engaging customer literature with our Marketing Professionals to ensure our key products and services are promoted in the best way
  • Training our customer contact teams on new products, and helping with product and pricing queries, product knowledge and market information
  • Researching the market, evaluating customer feedback and competitor activity to identify opportunities to provide profitable, exiciting product opportunities

Join our Transport Team

If you have experience working within Transport and Logistics, or experience of Air Reservations systems, you might be suited to a career within our Transport team.

Our Air and Ground Transport Consultants are responsible for the relationships with our transport suppliers, working closely with Coach Suppliers, Rail networks, Airlines and Ferry companies to ensure our customers can get away safely.

A typical day within our of our Transport teams, based in Blackpool may include:

  • Using Travel GDS systems to identify, request and confirm travel options for customers looking to travel by Air
  • Providing pricing and schedule information to our sales team for flight based tour quotes
  • Confirming transport bookings with our partner suppliers
  • Sourcing additional transport options to meet the needs of our travelling groups
  • Keeping a close eye on industry news to ensure our teams are aware of any schedule changes or potential travel disruption.
  • Ensuring any travel ticketing has been completed accurately for groups travelling by air

Jobs for Language Speakers

As a travel company, we truly recognise the value of having people in our business that speak more than one European language in ensuring we can effectively communicate with each and every partner supplier or agent who help us deliver great experiences for our customers.

Although linguists are welcome in all parts of our organisation, their language skills are put to best use within our Destination Services and Contracting Teams;

Joining us as a Destination Services Consultant

Our Destination Services Consultants are responsible for ensuring we have the available accommodation to meet the needs of our travelling groups. They liaise with Hoteliers and Agents we have existing relationships with, as well as identifying and developing relationships with potential new suppliers, or suppliers to meet a groups' specific requirements.

As a Destination Services Consultant you are likely to get involved in:

  • Using your language skills to communicate effectively with non English speaking suppliers by telephone and by email
  • Translating documents and information where required
  • Confirming accommodation reservations with suppliers ensuring suppliers are ready to welcome groups, and have a full understanding of their needs and expectations
  • Researching ad hoc hotels and liaising with our Customer Service and Sales teams to make sure accommodation features match the needs of the group.
  • Working closely with our Safety Manager to ensure all our accommodation provisions meet our stringent security and safety standards

Joining us as a Contracts Manager

If you apply to work with us as a Contracts Manager you are likely to already have a solid background in the Travel Industry, and may already have been involved in purchasing or supplier relations.

Our Contracts Managers work in partnership with our accomodation and visits providers, travelling all over the world to make sure our groups can take advantage of the best hotels and educational visits & exhibitions, as well as ensuring they can eat well whilst on tour, by building great relationships with Restranteurs and Caterers. 

Like our Product team, our Contracts Managers also take time to support our customer contact teams, providing destination information, training, as well as answering ad hoc queries to help them resolve problems on behalf of our customers.

What do we look for in our Commercial team members?


    In such a competitive market place, Our commercial team members need to stay "one step ahead" in a number of ways; They need to be "one step ahead" of our customers, identifying trends and opportunities to enhance their students' learning through new and exciting outside the classroom travel experiences. They need to be "one step ahead" of the competition, to ensure our brands remain in their market leading positions.

     

    We fill our Commercial teams with people who can demonstrate the following skills and qualities

    • The ability to generate bright ideas and be innovative, bold, and creative
    • Strong analytical thinkers, with a high level of commercial and financial awareness
    • Resourceful with the determination to deliver fantastic products and services
    • A Customer First mentality

    Every team member in our commercial departments share our Vision of developing and delivering high value, unique educational travel products to our customers.

5 Benefits of joining our Commercial Teams

1. Support, Coaching and Development

Our team members receive regular 1:1 support and coaching from their line manager as part of our commitment to continuously developing their skills to achieve goal after goal. We also hold annual performance reviews where we celebrate positive performance, reflect on achievements and development needs, and discuss career progression opportunities and aspirations.

2. Competitive Salary and Bonus

We ensure our Commercial Team members are rewarded fairly for their contribution to delivering customer satisfaction. We regularly review our reward structure to ensure we remain competitive in the marketplace.

3. Professional Development

We recognise the importance of continuous development for our Commercial Teams. We offer opportunities to study qualifications up to Masters (Level 7) to our team members through our Education Sponsorship Scheme

4. Travel Opportunities

Our Travel Specialists need to understand our customers as much as our Sales and Customer Service Teams’. We help them do this by enabling them to visit, our accommodation, visits, and travel service providers in the UK and overseas whcih help them make better, customer focussed, decisions.

5. Great Team Environment

Our Travel Specialists work together providing specialist knowledge and product support enabling Customer Contact teams deliver the best service to our travelling groups. Each individual and team support each other daily, by sharing knowledge, skills and ideas to make our brands stand out in the market.

These are just some of the fantastic roles on offer in our Commercial teams at Blackpool and Hertford.

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