Gypsy heart

Almost all of us are enthused with the idea of travelling to new places, experiencing other cultures and meeting interesting people. Yet, there are a select few who make a successful career out of their wanderlust.

Samir Kher, 32, is one of them. He has converted his love for travel into a lucrative career. Not for him the dreary job of sitting in front of a computer screen, tapping keys and issuing tickets. Kher tread the unbeaten path and joined Wildrift, one of the first few eco-tourism companies in India. Ask him why and pat comes the reply, “The primary criteria for choosing this as a career is passion for the outdoors – everything else will follow.”

Kher, who holds a Bachelor’s in business administration from Delhi University, worked with various companies for about seven years. Not finding the space to spread his wings in the corporate confines, he then backpacked around India for two years and then joined a course in basic mountaineering at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi. He subsequently joined Wildrift.

However, a more structured approach may be required to go in for a formal course. “Various institutes across the country offer travel and tourism programmes. These could last from three to six months or one to two years. You are taught about air travel and ticketing, domestic and international ticketing, tourism organisation, travel agency operations, tour operations, airlines computer reservation course (like Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre, Worldspan, etc.),” says Neha Jain, assistant manager – human resources, Kuoni Business Travel India.

Kher’s job as a tour planner and operator involves scouting for locations, setting up logistics and resources with the help of locals; evaluating hotels and setting up camps. Some planners also form alliances with bus operators, airlines or the railways to work out good deals for clients. A big consideration while arranging these is cost, hence negotiation skills become very important.

Once the locations are set up, the job of marketing begins. “Our work involves everything related to developing the programmes and marketing it. We design our own communications (brochures, presentations, etc) including our own website and other online activities,” says Kher. Large companies typically have a dedicated marketing department.

Of late, there is higher demand for the kind of travel offerings Kher puts together. Corporates, institutions, individuals and groups have started demanding more unconventional holiday experiences.

Says Kher, “We design meaningful and exciting programmes for a variety of visitors, both adult and children. Some examples are educational outbound programmes for schools and training programmes for corporate clients. The challenge is to make the experience exciting and different for the traveller.”

Talking about career paths, Kher says, “In my job, there are no fixed career paths – you make your own path and travel on it as far as you can. It is our own personal adventure and we define it ourselves.”

However, in a large travel company, the career path is more structured. One can start as a counter clerk or a trainee tour operator. The next rung is of an assistant and one can rise to a junior executive, after that. Depending on one’s interests and skills, one can aim to reach the position of a regional manager or start one’s own travel business.


Author: Pankaj Mullick
Date: 25th Feb., 2010

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