Business Travel Guide |
Home Entertainment Flight Tracker Frequent Flyer Programs Hotel Rewards Information Expert Flyer

Travel Jobs: Travel Director

Travel AgentBe a travel director. Okay, maybe it isn’t as easy as it sounds. Travel Directors kind of have to be a jack of all [travel] trades. Employed by a corporate travel agency, the duties of this job can run the gamut of pointing out the room in which a conference will be held to purchasing a personal aircraft to get your group out of a dangerous area.

The Travel Director accompanies his or her assigned group for the duration of a business trip. That includes tours, meals, meetings and more to make sure things run as smooth as butter. The lucky person is this position is responsible for all of the detail stuff on the trip, such as itinerary, seat assignments, hotel preferences, gift requests and handouts.

Travel directors are typically on-call unless on vacation. That means you can’t have much of a life. I’m actually okay with that, as I don’t have much of a life anyway. But for those of you who have families or are really serious about your weekly rock-paper-scissors tournament, it probably isn’t such a good deal.

To get this sort of gig you’ll need a college degree. No particular degree, but you must have paid your dues at some university. In addition, strong people skills and basic computer proficiency are required. These jobs are a little difficult to research. Maritz seems to be the Godzilla of corporate travel, beyond that you’ll have to look through countless Google pages to find anything relevant.