Hospitality & Travel

Holiday representatives (a.k.a. holiday reps) are employed by companies that offer package holidays. Essentially, these guys provide help, support and guidance to tourists and act as the frontline representative of the holiday company.
At a basic level, holiday representatives are employed to make sure that all customers have a memorable and enjoyable holiday. Its all about providing first-class customer service and making sure that every tourist's experience provides full value for money.
If you enter this line of work, you'll be responsible for picking up holidaymakers from transport hubs, such as airports, ports and train stations, and then escorting them to the hotel or resort where they are staying.
Furthermore, you'll be in charge of conducting welcome meetings for guests and providing a brief overview of local amenities, attractions and activities.
Once you've taken guests to their accommodation, let them know about everything that they can do and sold them a few tours and excursions, it's not time to kick back and relax by the pool. You'll also be responsible for dealing with customer queries and resolving problems as and when they arise. As a holiday representative, you'll be the go-to guy or gal for all the tourists in your jurisdiction.
Basic salaries for holiday representatives are typically quite low. Reps who are just starting out will usually earn between 450 and 525 per month, while senior reps can earn around 600 to 800.
However, by selling tours and excursions, holiday reps can earn a decent amount of commission, which can add a much-needed salary boost.
It's also important to bear in mind that many holiday companies provide reps with free accommodation and meals. You may also get the opportunity to use company cars for personal use. Most employers also provide full-service holiday and travel packages at discounted rates for employees families and friends.
WORKING HOURS
don't expect to have a regular nine-to-five schedule in this line of work. Working hours tend to be long and irregular. You won't be tied to a desk though; you'll be out and about for most of your professional life.
Be prepared for early morning arrivals and late night departures (or vice versa). When things go wrong, you'll need the composure, tenacity and organisational skills to sort it out. Working under pressure for long, continuous periods is a common occupational hazard.

An individual in a GM role is a generalist who is familiar with all areas of the business and can coordinate processes and operations across the organization. A general manager must speak the languages of finance and accounting, operations, sales, marketing, human resources, and research and development or engineering.
In larger organizations, individuals viewed as having general management potential often work in a series of assignments, rotating through the various functions and gradually growing their expertise and responsibilities over many years. General managers typically have deep industry experience, and if they don't come up through the larger organization, they most likely have long histories of working for one or more competitors within the same industry.
It's important to take certain steps if you're interested in moving toward the role of general manager.
-Work with your executive or manager to gain support for regular job rotation into new assignments.
-Consider lateral moves into other departments as a means of growing your experience.
-Volunteer for or get involved in cross-functional projects as a means of learning the business and -expanding your professional network of contacts.
-Seek additional education in core management topics, including accounting, operations, sales, and marketing.
-Consider seeking an advanced degree, especially an MBA.
Career Advancement Opportunities for a General Manager.
Although the role of general manager is a senior role and possibly the highest level an individual can achieve, some organizations actively draw their corporate level senior executives from the ranks of the general managers. The challenges and complexity of the role make it an ideal proving ground for running multiple business units or advancing to the role of a chief operating officer or chief executive officer.
General Manager Responsibilities
A GM's duties and responsibilities cover a lot of ground, but these are some of the most common. He must typically:
-Oversee daily operations of the business unit or organization.
-Ensure the creation and implementation of a strategy designed to grow the business.
-Coordinate the development of key performance goals for functions and direct reports.
-Provide direct management of key functional managers and executives in the business unit.
-Ensure the development of tactical programs to pursue targeted goals and objectives.

PhD is a very reputed program. The basic eligibility of the course is a Master's degree. The candidates generally develop high standards of research ability and a knack for application of concepts in a specialized field. Professionals generally opt for this option once the wish to use there caliber for research and development of a particular part of a sector and for the purpose sharing their knowledge with the aspirants.
Tourism sector will generally offer customer related job profiles however the benefit of pursuing PhD in tourism will allow one to build a career in the sector of teaching and imparting knowledge in the various T&T institutes. These institutes give preference over general master degree holders.
The good institutes offering these PhD programs are:
Amity University
IGNOU
KSOU
Pondicherry University

Tourism is a booming industry offering many job opportunities in the sector.
As this is an upcoming sector hence there are certain mandate skills required to excel in the field:
Customer dealing- The art of understanding the customer requirements, needs and expectation is a key to building a rapport with the customer.
Knowledge of the geography of said area- This goes a long way in giving the best experience to the customers keeping their requirements in mind.
Additional language- This makes an advantage to foreign tourists as communication is a key to being able to deliver the requirements.
Technical knowledge of travel process- Right from ticket booking, package booking, experience packages, fooding areas, etc. will help improve the travel experience.
Problem solving- One needs to be very decisive and spontaneous to handle any problem/concern as and it occurs.
These skills are learnt through experience and also taught in many personality development subjects in T&T course. However, the actual application basis the situation one faces will ensure better learning.

Yes, softwares are involved as once a booking is done the same needs to be updated with all concerned departments immediately to avoid confusion hence a software is required.
List of software involved in ticketing/reservations are:
-Galileo CRS
-Amadeus
-Sabre
-Worlspan, etc.
The various version of these software keep developing based on the company and any additional features that are introduced.
The best training institutes for these software would definitely be the IATA authorized centers as these certification from there are globally accepted.
Few top institutes that provide equally good training for the same are:
Kuoni Academy
TMI Academy of Travel & Tourism
Thomas Cook
Skylark Institute of Travel
You can pursue different level of course, with varied duration and also option for the campus placements and assistance provided.

The course is a full time 4 year program of BHM. This institute is affiliated to Bangalore University and AICTE. It also holds a NAAC accreditation.
The admissions are open for children of Army personnel with at least ten years of service.
The age limit is to be 22 maximum at the time of application.
The exam is a 3 hour exam that involves questions related to:
English
General knowledge
Basics of Hotel and tourism management
Logical and reasoning departments
Numerical ability
The preparation strategy is quite simple as the approach of the exam is to attempt the max. no of questions However one needs to be careful as there is negative marking involved.
Go through as many sample and mock papers as this will help to understand the best approach to follow and the important topics to focus on for preparation
Prepare on basis of a timetable this way you will be able to dedicate on all sections equally and that way you'll be able to score maximum marks.
Remain clam during preparation and focus on the pattern of the exam. Understanding of the pattern followed will help build confidence to attempt the question.