Salesman for tourism and leisure

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Businesswoman for tourism and leisure is a state-recognized training occupation that has arisen due to the diverse developments in the tourism and leisure industry. The training period is usually three years. The field of activity of businesspeople for tourism and leisure focuses on domestic tourism: they mediate and sell products within a region or place. The training therefore mostly takes place in regional tourism organizations. In contrast to this, tourism salespeople deal with the mediation and sale of worldwide private and business trips. The training to become a tourism clerk takes place mainly in travel agencies or tour operators.

history

On the upswing for decades: vacation and leisure

While in earlier times educational and recreational travel were reserved for a small group of wealthy people, vacation travel began to become interesting and affordable for broad sections of the population at the latest since the 1960s. In addition, there was increased mobility in private transport, which made excursion destinations in the surrounding area quickly accessible. From package deals to specialized adventure, sport or study trips, the offer became more and more differentiated. Leisure and tourism are much more important today than they were a few years ago. Regions and cities expand their tourist offer and distinguish themselves through suitable advertising measures and public relations.

Accordingly, the tourism and leisure industry needs qualified specialists in cities, municipalities and tourist information centers who can provide customers and guests with expert advice on regional offers, sell them tourist services, plan marketing and advertising measures effectively and stage events. This applies to a region or city as well as to leisure pools or theme parks, for example. With the tourism and leisure clerk, a profession was created whose specialists - depending on the focus - can work in tourism companies as well as in leisure businesses.

From travel agency assistant to businessman / woman for tourism and leisure

The beginnings of the training for professionals in travel go back to 1940. The profession of travel agency assistant created at that time was valid - with a new version and change of the job description - until 1962, when he was replaced by the profession of travel agent .

The successor occupation of the travel agent was the training as a travel agent in 1974. The training occupation was now recognized under the Vocational Training Act. After a further reorganization in 1979, the profession was given the two fields of travel agency and travel organizing as well as health and tourism.

In 1998 the training regulations were reformed again. The disciplines were now called tourism as well as cures and tourism. The reform had become necessary in order to take account of some changes in the job description: modern information and communication systems for travel bookings were just as indispensable in the field of work as modern methods of marketing for travel destinations. Above all, however, through the choice of areas of application within the disciplines, it enabled an even greater specialization compared to previous training regulations.

Due to the greater differentiation between foreign and domestic tourism, the new apprenticeship as a businessman for tourism and leisure was developed in 2005. Around 400 new training contracts are concluded every year.

education

Dual education

The apprenticeship as a businessman for tourism and leisure is a dual training . Duale means that the training takes place partly in a training company and partly in the vocational school . It is uniformly regulated nationwide in accordance with the Vocational Training Act.

Training companies are companies from the leisure and tourism sector.

During their apprenticeship, the trainees work in sales, information or office spaces, and help with the planning and implementation of various events or projects on site. Communicative and organizational skills as well as good manners are a matter of course.

In the vocational school, the theoretical background is developed that traders in tourism and leisure need to successfully pursue their profession. Lessons take place regionally in blocks of two, three or even up to six weeks.

requirements

Certain qualifications are required and checked by most companies.

Essential:

  • Contact and adaptability (in dealing with customers and colleagues)
  • Resilience (e.g. in the main season or shortly before a larger event)
  • Creativity (e.g. when creating new products, sales letters)

Conducive:

  • good manners, politeness, friendly demeanor
  • Well-groomed appearance (especially when doing activities with direct customer contact)
  • Empathy (dealing with demanding customers)
  • Enthusiasm, persuasiveness (e.g. to convince guests of the offers of a tourist region)
  • Able to provide advice (e.g. advice to holiday guests regarding the offers at the holiday destination)
  • Tendency towards written work, office and administrative work, handling data and figures (e.g. working out financing plans for events)
  • Inclination to think based on commercial and economic success
  • Enjoy planning and organizing (e.g. at events)

School:

Most of the trainee businesspeople for tourism and leisure have an intermediate level of education, general higher education entrance qualification (Abitur) or technical college entrance qualification (technical diploma). The proportion of secondary school graduates who get an apprenticeship in this occupation is decreasing from year to year.

Work content

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Merchants for tourism and leisure know the region for which they are responsible and can obtain further information if necessary. If necessary, they can also provide information in foreign languages. They also broker or sell services and tickets, book rides or reserve seats. They have brochures and literature at hand, with the help of which customers can obtain further information. Since they know the needs, wishes and questions of guests and customers well, they also contribute to the development of new offers and services. In addition, leisure providers are supported in the areas of marketing and customer referral and they have the ability to organize events. At these events, they develop the right idea for the intended target group, draw up financing plans and coordinate advertising measures, rooms, participants and the event technology. After the event, they carry out a performance review and prepare the final bill. If you are involved in destination design, you help shape the profile of a region or a city and market it. They coordinate or develop tourism and leisure products and make the respective attractions and special features known through marketing measures. In this way they ensure that customers can get information and book offers at any time. When advising customers and guests, communicative skills are just as important as when organizing events, in marketing or when building a regional network.

Training goals

The aim of the tourism and leisure merchants is to increase the level of awareness, improve the image and increase the number of visitors to a destination.

Customer satisfaction and customer loyalty through high service quality are the top principles of the job description, which are accordingly taken into account in the classroom.

In order to guarantee this, a well-founded basic commercial education is required, which primarily includes a holistic marketing approach as a focus.

  • Recognize current trends,
  • to deal with important target groups of the future,
  • recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your own region,
  • Working out ways of implementing strategies as part of the marketing mix

are important topics for the success of a destination, the basics of which are taught as part of professional training to become a tourist and leisure trader.

The exam

midterm exam

To determine the level of training, a written intermediate examination is carried out in the middle of the 2nd year of training .

This takes a maximum of 180 minutes and consists of practice-related tasks or cases from the areas of service provision, accounting, work and process organization as well as economics and social studies.

Participation in the intermediate examination is an admission requirement for the IHK final examination.

final exam

Since 2014 there has been a new catalog of requirements for the content of the final examination.

The final examination consists of a written and an oral part and extends to the content of in-company training and the subject matter of vocational school instruction, insofar as it is essential for vocational training.

written part

In the examination area Products and Services of the Tourism and Leisure Industry, the candidates work on written tasks from the following areas in a maximum of 150 minutes:

  • Design of products and services
  • marketing
  • Organization of business processes

One third of this part of the examination is included in the overall result of the examination.

In the examination area Commercial Management and Control, the following tasks are also given in writing in a maximum of 90 minutes:

  • Business accounting
  • Cost and performance accounting
  • Controlling and Statistics

In the examination area of ​​economics and social studies, the candidates should show in a maximum of 90 minutes written work that they represent economic and social relationships in the professional and working world and represent and assess the tourism and leisure industry as an economic factor.

The examination areas commercial management and control as well as economics and social studies each include one sixth in the overall result of the examination.

Oral part

In the examination area case-related technical discussion (oral part), the examinees choose one of two practice-related tasks. After a preparation time of max. In 15 minutes in a technical discussion of up to 20 minutes, the test subjects show that they can communicate and act in a customer and service-oriented manner and that they can plan, carry out and control work processes independently.

One third of the case-related technical discussion is also included in the overall result of the examination.

Oral supplementary examination

Under certain conditions, a supplementary oral examination can be carried out in one of the written subjects if this can be decisive for passing the examination.

Passage regulation and repetition options

The examination is passed if at least sufficient performance has been achieved in the overall result as well as in two of the written examination areas and in the case-related technical discussion.

Exam retake:

Failed exams can be repeated twice according to the Vocational Training Act.

Examining body:

The exam is taken at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Graduation title:

Businesswoman for Tourism and Leisure / Businesswoman for Tourism and Leisure

Training allowance

The trainees can receive the following monthly training allowances in the individual training years:

  1. Year of training: € 797
  2. Year of training: € 908
  3. Year of training: € 1,052

The amount of the training allowance is staggered differently in the individual federal states and can thus lead to deviations. The mentioned remuneration corresponds to the collective bargaining agreements for industry-related training companies of the DRV Deutscher Reiseverband e. V. (as of October 1, 2018)

Training companies

  • Tourism organizations and associations
  • City, community and spa administrations, tourist information centers
  • Culture and leisure agencies
  • Camping and leisure areas
  • Travel and tourism operator
  • Leisure and adventure parks
  • Spa, baths and wellness establishments
  • Indoor systems
  • hotel
  • Maritime tourism companies (marinas)
  • other companies for marketing tourist attractions
  • tourism-oriented transport companies
  • regional tourist offices
  • Event agencies

Training opportunities

After the apprenticeship there is the possibility of further training to become a business economist or tourism specialist . Those who have a university entrance qualification can pursue a degree in tourism management.

Differentiation between tourism salespeople (salespeople for private and business trips, formerly: travel agents)

In addition to the largely identical content of both professions with regard to basic commercial issues, the two apprenticeships differ in their main subjects, tourism and leisure processes, as well as travel-specific processes.

In the German travel agencies there are still tourism salespeople (salespeople for private and business trips, formerly: travel agents) who are specialized in advising and mediating optimally in relation to different target areas. In addition to Germany as a travel destination, long-distance travel destinations are also discussed. Tourism clerks (traders for private and business trips) deal with outgoing and foreign tourism. Tourism salespeople also work for tour operators and produce package tours and travel catalogs, etc.

In the organization of spa and leisure activities, however, people are required on site who act as direct contact persons for the guests. Businesspeople for tourism and leisure deal with incoming and domestic tourism.

The tourism and leisure merchants can be said to be where the tourists are after being advised by the tourism merchants (business and private travel merchants). For tourism salespeople (salespeople for private and business trips), the contact usually ends after a successful trip booking and for tourism and leisure salespeople, contact with the customer only begins now.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ordinance on vocational training for tourism and leisure clerks / tourism and leisure clerks of March 18, 2005 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 794 )
  2. ↑ Ordinance on vocational training as a tourism clerk (businessman for private and business trips) and tourism clerk (clerk for private and business trips) of 19 2011 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 953 )
  3. ↑ a b c businessman for tourism and leisure in the profession of the Federal Employment Agency
  4. ↑ [1] Statistics Education 2018, dihk.de, accessed on April 4, 2019
  5. ↑ [2] . Author: State vocational school Berchtesgadener Land. Year: 2019. Accessed: April 4, 2019
  6. ↑ [3] . Author: State vocational school Berchtesgadener Land. Year: 2019. Accessed: April 4, 2019.

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