In Tough Employment Market, Tourico Holidays Trains Its Own

Students at Tourico Holidays Travel Academy. Photo: Facebook.

Altamonte Springs, FL — At a time when unemployment is dropping, and finding qualified employees is becoming increasingly difficult, Tourico Holidays is embarking on its second year of its successful Travel Academy, doubling the number of enrollees and making offers to nearly 100% of its candidates.

The company hosts four, 10-week sessions per year, in January, April, July, and October.  Students receive salary, housing, meal plan, laptops and full benefits after 30 days. There is a mix of classroom learning and field experience through workshops, training, and exams.

In the classroom, the students receive the benefit of direct instruction from eight Tourico senior executives, including CEO Uri Argov. Instructors also include experienced travel professionals and a series of guest professors.

“The curriculum very much reflects the style of our top executives,” said Kieran Le-Petit, Tourico Holidays global director of recruitment. In class instruction and field/project work focuses on negotiation, problem solving, technology, presentation and execution within the travel industry.

At the end of the instruction portion of the program, candidates take on actual work projects for the company. For example, sales candidates frequently travel to a territory to meet with and close sales with prospect travel companies.

Tourico Holidays, Inc. is a $1 billion travel distribution company that provides business-to-business wholesale travel brokerage services. The company contracts directly with travel providers, including hotels, airlines, cruises, rental cars and attractions. With over 30 local locations and 650 employees on five continents, Tourico operates in 13 languages.

Tourico advertises its program all across the U.S., with its main focus on recruiting for its product and sales departments.

Successful Academy graduates interview for full time positions at Tourico Holidays. Le-Petit said offers have been accepted by 98% of the graduates, and Tourico has seen significant contribution back to the company already. He pointed to the performance of recent sales staff hired in through the academy, far outperforming incumbent U.S. Tourico employees in hotel contract signings.

The first week of class, students receive an overview of Tourico Holidays and the travel industry. Succeeding class instruction includes Tourico’s systems, problem solving frameworks, negotiation and presentation skills, and project execution.

One recent graduate is Michael Gambino. He heard about the program through a close friend who had recently graduated from the Academy. “What surprised me the most was when she mentioned that the Executives of the company run the 10-week training program,” Gambino said.

Gambino holds a Masters in management, and a BA in Hospitality Management with a specialization in Finance.

In the first two years, the Academy has received more than 7,200 total applicants, including 1,550 from Ivy League school students. Only 187 students have been accepted into the program.

Le-Petit credits the academy’s success to the personal investment of the senior executive team. “Employees are more motivated when they see how invested leadership is,” he said.

Gambino agreed. “The executives’ personal engagement to each student is priceless. If I were to start my own company, I would adopt a similar approach,” he said.

He also feels the extensive planning Tourico puts into the classroom instruction and project work engages employees both in attending the Academy, and in their ultimate interest in working for Tourico.

“You need to plan real work for [candidates], rather than have something rushed together at the last minute. They want to have a professional experience so the hiring company needs to be professional from the outset with proper planning,” said Le-Petit, who has spent 13 years as a recruitment professional in the United Kingdom, Brazil, the Middle East, Japan and China. He specializes in technical and graduate recruitment in the travel, finance, consulting and education industries.

Le-Petit wants to double the program this year to over 280 students – and to a total of 750 students per year by 2018.