Training is a must, not an option

In our roundtable this month, travel agents met with training providers to debate what is undoubtedly a very serious and worrying lack of investment in staff training and development in the region’s travel trade. Views were heated on all fronts as to the reasons for this – a lack of money to invest, a lack of interest or commitment from management or agency owners – amazingly some agencies still regard their staff as nothing more than simple ticket issuers.

But the overall message was clear, there’s a huge gap in the industry when it comes to travel agent skills – the question is who will pay to fill it? While a few of the bigger agencies in the market can afford to invest in staff training, smaller agencies barely survive on such low margins that they don’t have the cash to spend on training. But does this mean those working in the trade should miss out on career development opportunties?

While recent years have seen some good initiaves taking place, such as the sponsored training courses being offered by DTTAG to all its members, where does that leave everyone else?

There is no travel school in the region, there are no really affordable courses for someone working in the trade who might wish to build up skills and take a qualification. If you are a travel agent, stuck at a firm that doesn’t invest in you, there are very few options.

Many interesting ideas were offered up at the debate as to how to tackle this problem. Perhaps each travel agency could contribute a small amount to help fund a national training school for the whole industry? Maybe sponsors could be found to subsidise cost-effective courses which agents themselves would be willing to pay for? Or what if travel agencies helped to fund agent training which staff could pay back at a later date once they had qualified?

Whatever the solution to plugging the skills gap, it has to happen fast, as the one thing everyone agreed on was that without being given the skills to take the leap from ‘ticket issuer’ to ‘travel consultant’, travel agents will never survive in today’s world. After all, as one person so succinctly put it: why would a customer pay professional service fees to someone that can’t even call themselves a professional?

Monika Grzesik,
Editor, Arabian Travel News