Last month, Tom asked my opinion about the best fit between his business,
linguistic, and travel background and a potential career in the"travel and
tourism industry."
Jaime, in this follow up question, says he found my answer a bit
confusing and he wants to know where the big money is made in the travel and
tourism industries.
In an industry that employs millions of people, you'd think someone must
be getting rich wouldn't you?
Well, it's certainly not the worker bees like tour guides, tourist
bureaus clerks, travel agents, and the like.
Is it the airlines? Flight attendants and maintenance staff make a decent
living but they're not buying BMWs. Pilots earn enough to buy fancy
wood-hulled sailboats and, frankly, I wouldn't want them to be paid less. The
stockholders who own the airlines have not done so well over the years. And,
of course, everyone is angry at airlines, including most of the people who
work for them.
It would seem as if owners of those big cruise ships must make fortunes.
Probably some do, but I noticed in the news this morning that a half dozen
cruise ships belonging to Premier Cruise Lines have been impounded on behalf
of angry creditors, stranding 2,800 passengers from the Caribbean to the
Mediterranean. That's not the first cruise line to go belly up, (perhaps not
a happy phrase to apply to a ship). Unfortunately, Jaime, cruise ship owner
is not an entry-level position.
Hotels? The staff scrapes by, but stockholders seem to do well. At least
the popular tourist hotels are consistent moneymakers.
Tour operators? I'd guess that owners of the larger, high-end operators
(e.g., Abercrombie and Kent) make a very good living. However, especially for
smaller companies, it's a very hands-on, high stress business.
Many of those who own local businesses that cater to a consistent flow of
tourists do extremely well. I'm thinking of everything from the restaurant
and gift shop at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia to the cluster of business that
feed on the throngs visiting Disneyworld in Orlando.
I suppose that people who write about travel are part of the industry, but no
one ever went into that line of work to get rich.
Jaime referred to a bias I had confessed. In my answer to Tom, I
expressed my opinion that travelers who go on organized bicycling, trekking
and climbing adventures are generally a"pretty nice group of folks." Yep,
that's my bias and I stand by it.
And these start-up dot coms such as GORP?
I know that few on this planet work longer hours or more intensely than the
staffs of these start-ups. Competition is fierce and only the brightest, most
agile, and luckiest succeed. Investors and employees who hold stock in
dot coms may theoretically be worth thousands, even millions, but they can't
pay for much with that theoretical money. Only if they beat the odds, and
the burn rate, will they be able to take the company public. At that point,
the sun will shine brightly — at least for a while.
As your question suggests, those who do best in the travel industry are
those who own the store. No surprise there. However, you have to pay some
dues to get into that position and there aren't many easy dollars being made
in the "travel and tourism industry."
Rob Sangster
