If you’re the type of person who gets excited at the prospect of packing their suitcases to venture off to amazing new locations, or even if you get excited at the thought of helping others to head off into the great wide world, then a career in the Travel and Tourism industry could be perfect for you.

Extraordinary increases in global tourism, combined with a forecast low Australian dollar, signal good times for tourism. With Australia’s strong brand and new horizons in green and eco-tourism, now is a good time to explore the course options available at TAFE NSW that can prepare you for an exciting career in the tourism and travel industry.

Spotlight on industry growth

Tourism is a fast growing and ever changing industry. Australian tourism grew to a massive $129.5 billion industry by the end of the year and continue to grow by another 3.5% by 2022.

With new forms of tourism emerging all the time, now is a highly exciting time to enrol with TAFE NSW and pursue a tourism and travel career. Some of the newly emerging forms of tourism include:

• cruise ship tourism
• eco-tourism and agri-tourism
• food trails and co-working hotels
• Aboriginal and culture-based tourism

Spotlight on future skills needs: Be in demand

The tourism sector has shifted its focus from destination tourism, to ‘experience’ tourism, and this new focus forms part of the emerging ‘experience economy.’ This means that the skills that employers will be looking for in coming years.

• Customer service and experience management
• Technology enabled economy sharing platforms
• Social media engagement

TAFE NSW teachers are all industry experts who shape their courses to reflect the modern changes happening within the travel and tourism sector. So when you choose to study at TAFE NSW, you can be assured that the skills and knowledge you learn, will help you to start your travel and tourism career on the right foot.

Spotlight on emerging industry areas: Cruise-ship tourism   

It is projected that 10% of the NSW population will be taking their annual holidays on cruises, which in turn, will lead to the growth of regional ports and communities. The growing cruising sector of the tourism market will lead to an increase in the number of staff required to manage all aspects of the experience. Which means that when you earn a TAFE NSW tourism qualification, your services will be very much in demand, especially in careers like:

• accommodation services
• travel agents
• event management and administrative services.

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Sources: Industry employment forecast, job advertisement, top skills and qualifications, and employer data have been provided by TAFE Strategy. Employment forecast data was sourced from Deloitte Access Economics in February 2017. All job advertisement data was sourced from the Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight™ Real-time Labor Market Information tool and is based on online job postings over a three month period between 17 April to 17 July 2018.