

Ask any travel agency owner what his or her biggest concern is, and the answer is likely to be “finding good people.” So it comes as no surprise that 83% of the travel-agency respondents to a new survey said they have hired at least one person in the past year—but 71% said finding qualified candidates is more challenging than ever.

So what’s a travel agency to do? Douglas Walsh, sales and marketing director for Hot Travel Jobs and the Travel Staffing Group, who posted the survey of 69 travel agencies, says the real problem is that good candidates often get skipped over by HR departments.

Traditional HR methods no longer match up with the market, Walsh told TMR, and HR departments are weeding out the best candidates before they even get to the hiring managers. Instead of looking for candidates that meet a set list of qualifications, agencies need to sell the position to smart, adaptable people who can learn the skills they need as they go.

“Sell the positions,” he said. “Make that candidate want to answer that ad.”

One agency that responded to the survey told Walsh that those HR mistakes are “killing the industry” by limiting their recruiting efforts to existing agents.

What’s most frustrating, Walsh said, is that there are big opportunities in the industry—opportunities that go far beyond fam trips and IATA discounts. Starting salaries are up at 57% of the agencies surveyed, and on his own job board, Walsh has seen agencies offering $60,000 to $70,000—and in some cases as much as $100,000—for experienced candidates, particularly those with a corporate background.

The most important thing in attracting candidates, Walsh said, is to offer benefits—401k, healthcare and paid vacation—and to plainly state the salary up front, instead of forcing a candidate to wait until a second round of interviews to find out what he or she will be making.

I don’t know of anyone out there who is really doing corporate training to get these people into corporate jobs, where a lot of it is GDS-based.

And the time to get started is now.

“The majority of agents out there are old,” he. “As we move through time, more and more are retiring.”

And most young candidates considering a career at an agency just don’t have the right skills—specifically, the GDS skills—to move into the corporate side of the business, where opportunities are more plentiful and pay is higher.

“There are a lot of vehicles to get into leisure and there’s training available,” Walsh said. “From the corporate side, there needs to be some formal type of feeder stream to train these people. I don’t know of anyone out there who is really doing corporate training to get these people into corporate jobs, where a lot of it is GDS-based.”

Still, agencies are doing what they can to sharpen the skills of their employees. Fully 69% of the agencies surveyed offer free in-house training or pay for continuing education. Host agencies, who often hiring agents with little experience, also are helping to bring people into the industry.

“If it weren’t for host agencies, we’d be in a bad state because that’s where people are coming in—thousands and thousands of people,” Walsh said. “You hear people saying they love travel, and so they come into a host agency and get the tools they need to learn. And once they get in and like it, they move to the next step up.”