Do you have a love of travel? Whether you enjoy going abroad or across the United States, a travel-related degree is a great way to create opportunities to work in and around the travel industry.
There’s more than one relevant college study program to give you the chance to work in tourism, so let’s see what your options are.
Travel and Tourism Degree
A travel and tourism degree or one in travel services focus mostly on the service side of the industry. Here, we’re talking about working in a travel agency, behind the scenes of tour companies helping to manage the logistics and other aspects that don’t necessarily involve flitting from place to place all the time. Either of these degree options will suit you if you don’t want to always be on the move, but you enjoy the travel industry in general.
Some degrees major or minor in areas such as international travel, tour structuring or airline ticketing, which then open the door to careers which incorporate one or more of these aspects. Depending on the degree and level of specialization, there are some scholarships found at usascholarships.com that make the cost of college easier to manage.
Tourism and Hospitality Management Degree
A Tourism and Hospitality Management degree offers opportunities to move up in your travel industry career. The program focuses on the types of knowledge and skills required to operate a travel agency, be a travel industry strategic planner, or work in hospitality areas like a food provision business supporting travelers.
Creating group tours for corporations or special events for honeymooners is certainly on the cards with this type of degree. Anyone who likes either leading tours and planning them will certainly find this career path enjoyable.
Digital Media or Journalism Degree
An unconventional path to working in travel is to study for one of the many new degrees focused on the internet and digital media. Alternatively, a degree course focused on journalism or videography would also be useful. The idea is to become educated in the ways to communicate with people about travel, either in written or video form.
Many people now pursue their interest in travel by publishing a YouTube channel covering their adventures and making money through advertising on YouTube, product placement promotions on Instagram, and selling eBooks on their blog. Expert Vagabond is a good example of someone who travels widely and documents their exploits on both YouTube and their blog too. Overlander.tv is another one; an Aussie videographer who documents his travels featuring information on the local culture, the culinary scene and his insights along the way.
The good thing about a career in travel and tourism is that there is no longer only one way to enter this sector. Some people avoid the degree altogether and choose to work as cabin crew on an airline to enjoy more foreign (or domestic) travel. Younger people are often sold on joining the US Navy to “see the world” when they reach a foreign port. It’s all just a question of how you go about getting access to the travel industry. What will you decide?
