Where Can You Get Paid to Travel?

Would you like to get paid to travel? Tour managers, adventure guides, tour directors and travel guides all get to travel to exciting and exotic places, and get paid for the pleasure of introducing others to the cities and cultures that they love. If you’re looking for an exciting job in the field of travel and tours management, there are a number of different avenues and types of companies for which you might work.

Travel Agencies

Tour managers and tour directors often work with or for travel agencies that arrange trips for tourists overseas and in the United States. Their responsibilities include making sure that all of the tour participants in their charge have everything they need for a comfortable and enjoyable tour experience. They are a combination of information center, logistics planner and guardian angel. They get paid to travel with groups of people on tours put together by the travel agencies for which they work. These travel and tours management jobs are among the most popular jobs where you get paid to travel.

Cruise Companies

If you love reruns of The Love Boat and think Julie’s job was one of the coolest in the world, you might enjoy a job as a tour director with a cruise line. Travel directors and tour directors on cruise lines spend most of their time on board the ship. They plan activities for guests of the cruise line and ensure that everything runs smoothly. They may also assist cruise guests with making arrangements for onshore trips, and occasionally get to go onshore and enjoy the cities and ports where the ship puts in. The biggest advantage of working as a tour director with a cruise line is free travel. Not only do you get paid to travel for your job, but you and family members will enjoy free and discounted travel anywhere the cruise line travels.

Tour Companies

Nearly every city in the world has a number of tour companies that provide sightseeing tours of the city and surrounding area. Tour guide jobs and training with these companies are usually among the easiest entry level position in the travel and tours management industry. In most cases, all you need to get one of these jobs is a high school degree and a genuine interest in the city where you’ll be working. Some tour companies manage tours in cities all over the world. If you do well, you may get paid to travel to other cities and take positions in some of the most beautiful and exotic locations around the globe.

Why sit at home when you can have a fun job where you get paid to travel and introduce others to the wonders of traveling? Look into the many tour companies and agencies that can get you started on a lifelong career that you’ll enjoy.

Get Paid to Travel to Exotic Destinations

Why settle for a dull, boring job when you can get paid to travel to exotic destinations? Careers in the travel industry provide the opportunity for travel and education and give you a chance to share your love of the exotic destinations you visit. If you’re looking for a job where you get paid to travel, these are just a few of the positions you might enjoy.

Adventure Guides

Tour directors who take people on adventure tours get to enjoy more than just beautiful scenery and foreign cities – they have the opportunity to share in exciting adventures and introduce their charges to the beauties and wonders of the world. Adventure guides may head up tours into the Amazon, with rides down the Amazon River and nights spent setting up camp in jungle settings. They may spend weeks living with a travel tour group on a coffee plantation or in a village in Africa or Venezuela. If you love the outdoors and enjoy challenging yourself, a position as an adventure guide may be the right job for you.

Travel and Tours Management

Do you enjoy planning? Are you detail oriented? Can you communicate well with people from different cultures? Your dream job may be in a travel and tours management position. Tour managers help put together itineraries for tour groups of all ages. They must be able to communicate with many different types of people and have a good eye for a bargain.

Tour Guides

Tour guides get to enjoy the travel part of the job without all the headaches that go into the planning. Most tour guides live in the city where the tours are conducted. Their job is to highlight interesting information about tourist attractions and local city attractions. Tour guides often get the benefit of travel discounts, or can ask for a transfer to another city if they want to move to another locale. If you enjoy showing people the sights of a foreign city – or of your own city – a job as a tour guide could be the right one for you.

Travel Training

If you’re looking for training for tour guide jobs and travel training for other jobs in the travel and tourism industry, you’re not likely to find it at a college. Unlike other types of hospitality and tourism jobs, tour guide jobs and tour director jobs often go to those who have learned the ropes by doing the work. In many cases, tour companies will hire people with no experience if they fit the image the company wants to present. You can increase the odds of getting hired for a job where you get paid to travel, however, but studying the industry and learning as much as you can about it before you interview for a job.

Four Places You Can Get Paid to Travel

Do you dream of a job where you get paid to travel? The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that in the next ten years there will be lots more tour guide jobs and training for them makes sense in more ways than one. Travel training is not offered by most colleges, so you’re on your own to learn the ropes for positions as adventure guides, tour directors, tour managers and other travel careers. If you do seek out training in travel and tour management, however, the perks are incredible. As a tour guide or adventure guide, you’ll get paid to travel to some of the most exotic and compelling destinations in the world. These are just a few of the many places you can get paid to travel if you have the appropriate training for a career in the travel industry.

Student Tour Companies

Put your knowledge of the travel industry to guide tours through the lands where civilization came of age. You can visit the Coliseum in Rome, see the Appian Way and visit the buried city of Pompeii in Italy, then move on to stand at the Acropolis in Greece and imagine sitting under the trees to listen to Aristotle lecturing his students. If you love the idea of teaching youth but can’t abide being cooped up in a classroom, you could become one of the many tour guides who introduce young people to the wonders of the ancient world.

Cruise Lines

Do you love the idea of spending your days at sea and helping people make the most of their onshore time? Cruise lines hire tour directors, tour managers and tour guides to help plan and lead tours for their cruise vacationers. You can specialize in one area of the world – the Caribbean, perhaps? – or put your travel connections to work and travel around the globe.

Sightseeing Companies

You can get paid to travel by sightseeing companies who hire tour guides to manage tours in cities around the world. Most sightseeing companies manage operations in many different cities and offer big discounts on travel between their destinations. The skills you need to guide tours translate easily from one city to another, so if you tire of leading tours of Madrid, there are always travel careers waiting to be filled in Paris, Bogota, Cairo and many other cities around the world.

Adventure Companies

Ecotravel and adventure travel are among the hottest new entries into the travel and tourism industry, and there are always positions for adventure guides, tour directors and tour managers working with companies that organize these adventures for people. If you love the challenge of working in foreign countries and have a drive to educate others about the ecosystem or about the world around them, you may enjoy one of the many careers of this type.

These are just a few of the many jobs where you can get paid to travel when you have the necessary training to compete for them. Why spend the rest of your life dreaming about your dream career when you can make it a reality?

Get Paid to Travel? Yes, You Can

If you’ve been putting off your dream of traveling the world because your budget doesn’t support it, you don’t have to wait any longer. There’s a whole world of job opportunities for people who get paid to travel and help others who are traveling. If you’ve never considered a job in the travel and tourism industry before, you might not realize the many types of jobs and positions available for people like you who love traveling and get paid to travel to exciting destinations around the world. Here are just a few possible travel careers that you could be living with the right travel training.

Jobs in Travel and Tours Management

Tour managers, tour operators, tour directors and tour guides all have a role in facilitating travel for groups of people. Depending on your interests and abilities, you can take a job in one destination city or site or travel with a group through an entire tour. You can specialize in tours to one particular geographic region or take positions as a tour guide in a variety of foreign and U.S. cities. The best part of a job as a tour guide or tour operator is that you get paid to travel to exotic destinations instead of paying to travel.

Job Outlook in Travel Careers

While the job outlook for travel agents has worsened as people use the Internet to find and arrange their own travel. The outlook for jobs in travel and tour management, particularly for tour guide and travel guide jobs, has increased dramatically. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for travel guides is especially rosy – BLS expects the demand for travel guides to increase by more than 24% between 2010 and 2020. The job outlook for tour guides is an expected 18% between 2010 and 2020, with tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S. and worldwide.

Tour Guide Jobs and Training

Tour guide jobs are in high demand – after all, who wouldn’t love to get paid to travel? Few schools offer formal travel training and, according to the BLS, most travel job positions include a heavy component of on-the-job and industry training. Most successful candidates for travel jobs of this type get experience and knowledge in a related position, working with a travel agency or with tour guide operators, for example.

In a highly competitive industry like travel and tourism, every extra bit of training and knowledge can help you land your dream job. If you want to get paid to travel, look for opportunities to take courses in tour guide operation and other travel training that will help enhance your resume and get you that job in the travel industry.