Tour Operator

Travelbound European Tours Ltd; Brighton; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading educational travel company based in Brighton is seeking a Tour Operator to manage bookings, handle customer inquiries, and develop detailed travel itineraries. The ideal candidate will excel in customer service, be adaptable under pressure, and have a good command of English and numeracy. Benefits include a hybrid working pattern, overseas travel opportunities, and generous annual leave. This role requires strong organizational skills and the ability to negotiate with suppliers.

Benefits

Hybrid working pattern

Overseas travel opportunities

25 days annual leave plus public holidays

Bonus day off for your birthday

Employee discounts on trips

Qualifications

• Excellent customer service skills required with good written and spoken English.
• Basic knowledge of Word and Excel is necessary.
• Desirable level of spoken and written skill in French.

Responsibilities

• Planning and booking detailed travel itineraries according to groups’ requirements.
• Work with the party leader to create a unique educational travel experience.
• Negotiate rates with suppliers and ground service agents as required.

Skills

Customer service skills

Numeracy

Good written and spoken English

Flexible and adaptable

Education

GCSE Mathematics

Tools

Word

Excel

Job description

With more than 30 years’ experience, Travelbound are the industry leaders in high quality, subject-led tours for schools, universities, colleges, and clubs.

With bespoke itineraries to incredible worldwide destinations, and their exclusive Chateau du Molay in Normandy, Travelbound tailor every tour to meet your specific educational and cultural requirements.

Whether it’s a History Trip to New York & Washington, introducing Art & Design students to Paris, or organising orchestra and choir performance tours in Italy, every detail will be taken care of to create a truly tailormade, inspiring learning experience.

The role

This position involves the responsibility for bookings to specific destinations, from the confirmation of the reservation to the completion of the tour and post tour follow up. This is an organisational and customer service role.

Reporting to the Senior Tour Operator, the role exists to ensure that the customers receive a high level of personalised service and allow for extra touches to be made, which are key to maintaining the brands unique experience. The role requires you to develop tour itineraries into detailed, often complex, tailor made itineraries with detailed information and reservations. You would be part of the team that looks to exceed the customers’ expectations. These tours require logistical planning and preparation, as we supply tailor-made itineraries to suit our customers’ needs. At the same time attention must be given to the commercial and safety requirements of the business. Management of supplier & customer relationships is key to this role.

What you’ll be doing

• Planning and booking detailed travel itineraries according to groups’ requirements
• Work closely with the party leader to piece together a “unique educational travel experience”
• Dealing with all client file administration and telephone and e mail queries to specific destinations
• As required negotiate rates with suppliers & ground Service agents
• Ensure all final itinerary details are prepared and given to the group at least 4 weeks in advance of travel
• Work with overseas suppliers and internal staff to ensure that all Health & Safety Audit requirements are complete and accurate.
• Financially take responsibility for checking & authorising tour payments to suppliers, working within the tour budget.
• Work closely with the Sales team to ensure that tour requests are handed over accurately.
• Liaising with other departments to maintain credit control with both internal and external customers
• To be part of the internal on-call rota system
• Overseas travel as required, attend Fam trips and visits to roadshows to keep product knowledge up to date and relevant.
• Checking costings to make sure they match up with booking details and protecting the margin on your bookings.
• There may be a requirement to work additional hours in peak seasons

What we are looking for

• Excellent customer service skills are required with good written and spoken English and Numeracy (GCSE Mathematics)
• The applicant needs to have commercial acumen, be adaptable, reliable and flexible, with a responsible attitude and possess the ability to cope under pressure and respond to tight deadlines
• A basic knowledge of Word and Excel is necessary
• Desirable - Good level of spoken and written skill in French

Some of the benefits

• Hybrid working pattern between our office and homeworking
• Opportunities to travel overseas on familiarisation trips
• 25 days of annual leave plus public holidays and a bonus day off for your birthday; we also have a tenure based annual leave benefit, up to a maximum of an additional 5 days depending on length of service
• Global recognition and reward programme
• Access to extensive online learning resources
• In-house training opportunities
• Various employee discounts and offers, including discounted trips with our brands

We believe that people are happier and perform best when they are able to be their true selves and that diverse teams deliver better results.

We are committed to building an inclusive culture and embracing diversity in all its dimensions. This includes inspiring change through increasing awareness of unconscious bias.

Together we will cultivate a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment, where everyone can flourish.