Is a travel & tourism career still attractive? Important things to understand in 2025

Is a travel & tour­ism career still attract­ive in 2025? What is the most import­ant thing that a young per­son should under­stand before embark­ing upon a career in tourism?

That is your “GT” Insight Bites chal­lenge. Write up to 300 words about the ques­tion in the com­ments at any time. [The dead­line for free copy edit­ing, lay­out, and pre­view in time for this “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion has passed.]

UPDATE May 19, 2025 — Your “Good Tourism” Insight Bites

Thanks to the six respond­ents — pro­fess­ors and pro­fes­sion­als in the private and pub­lic sec­tors, all good people — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their responses appear in the order received.

Find a brand that matches your personality

Saverio Francesco Bertolucci, Business Development Specialist, VDB Luxury Properties, Spain

Travel & tour­ism are inter­twined; part of everyone’s lives. Both seg­ments, under the umbrella of hos­pit­al­ity, will always exist and always have appeal.

The key point is to under­stand the rap­idly evolving and com­pet­it­ive mar­ket, and to be pro­act­ive, sly, and flex­ible with­in it.

In a world in which intern­al pro­mo­tion sys­tems are becom­ing rarer and rarer, and where SMEs are strug­gling to sur­vive in favour of big cor­por­a­tions and inter­na­tion­al funds, young tal­ents need to under­stand wheth­er their char­ac­ter matches the require­ments of the sec­tor; and, if so, which com­pany aligns with their iden­tity and per­son­al growth tra­ject­ory the best. 

Match­ing brand with per­son­al­ity allows young­sters like me to go the extra mile, become entangled with the company’s image and brand aware­ness, while increas­ing know­ledge and accountability.

It’s only by work­ing for a brand one feels attached to that one can grow, put into prac­tice learn­ings from books, and add cru­cial know­ledge dir­ectly from the field. 

Awards, pro­mo­tions, and great job offers will con­sequently be on the table.

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A travel & tourism career is ‘not for everyone’

Shamiso Nyajeka, Head of Department, Kirirom Institute of Technology, Cambodia

Is a travel & tour­ism career still attract­ive in 2025?

Abso­lutely! But like many things in life, it’s not for every­one; one man’s meat is anoth­er man’s poison.

A career in travel and tour­ism can be incred­ibly reward­ing, but per­haps only for those with the right skills, mind­set, and expectations.

Over the years, I’ve had the priv­ilege of join­ing the career jour­neys of many tour­ism stu­dents across Africa, Europe, and Asia.

More than once, I’ve been approached by a con­fused, anxious stu­dent near­ing the end of their stud­ies, unsure wheth­er they made the right choice. After invest­ing three or four years in a tour­ism course, they sud­denly begin to doubt them­selves; won­der­ing if this is really the path they want to follow.

For some, the decision to study tour­ism was a per­son­al one; for oth­ers, it may have been influ­enced by fam­ily or peer pres­sure. Either way, doubts often creep in when they com­pare them­selves to friends in fields like digit­al tech­no­logy, who seem to enjoy bet­ter job pro­spects, high­er salar­ies, or faster career progression. 

Some stu­dents go on to gradu­ate and shift into entirely dif­fer­ent indus­tries; some­times out of neces­sity, some­times because their interest in tour­ism has simply faded.

That said, one of the great strengths of a tour­ism qual­i­fic­a­tion is its ver­sat­il­ity. It provides trans­fer­able skills — com­mu­nic­a­tion, plan­ning, time man­age­ment, team­work — that are valu­able across a wide range of sectors.

Still, man­aging expect­a­tions is cru­cial. While tour­ism might sound glam­or­ous — with its prom­ise of travel, events, and meet­ing new people — the real­ity often involves long hours, high pres­sure, and sig­ni­fic­ant emo­tion­al labour.

A suc­cess­ful career in tour­ism takes more than just pas­sion. It demands adapt­ab­il­ity, emo­tion­al intel­li­gence, crit­ic­al think­ing, and a strong work ethic.

So yes, tour­ism remains an attract­ive career; just not a one-size-fits-all path.

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Travel & tourism rewards an entrepreneurial spirit

Doreen Nyamweya, Tourism Officer, Nyamira County, Kenya

Is a travel & tour­ism career still attract­ive in 2025?

Abso­lutely! In 2025, a career in tour­ism is as attract­ive as ever, and per­haps more fas­cin­at­ing for the young­er gen­er­a­tions join­ing or look­ing to join the workforce.

Even though tour­ism has evolved sig­ni­fic­antly — after extern­al shocks that deman­ded resi­li­ence — the fun­da­ment­al human drive for con­nec­tion and life-chan­ging exper­i­ences persists.

When you think about it, travel & tour­ism presents immense oppor­tun­it­ies in adven­ture, cul­ture, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, eco-tour­ism, and digit­al travel exper­i­ences that inspire purpose.

While it is not always glam­or­ous, one must be ded­ic­ated, resi­li­ent, and pas­sion­ate about a cause. With that, a career in travel & tour­ism can be rewarding.

If I had to choose one thing that is most import­ant for young pro­fes­sion­als embark­ing on a career in tour­ism, it would be entre­pren­eur­i­al thinking.

Suc­cess­ful tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als build per­son­al brands, busi­nesses, or niche ser­vices. They are entre­pren­eurs. They do not just fit into exist­ing struc­tures, but devel­op vis­ions that shape the future of the industry.

There­fore, a young per­son must think bey­ond the tra­di­tion­al roles if they are to open them­selves up to new oppor­tun­it­ies. They should nur­ture their sense of cre­ativ­ity and innov­a­tion. They should look ahead to anti­cip­ate mar­ket needs and trends, identi­fy gaps, and be adapt­able to shifts.

Fur­ther, an entre­pren­eur­i­al spir­it gives one the abil­ity to take ini­ti­at­ive, which, in a dynam­ic industry, is what will keep one com­pet­it­ive and attract­ive with­in the labour market.

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Join ‘the care economy; the organising foundation of organic life’

K Michael Haywood, publisher, ‘Destinations-in-Action’, Canada

Whenev­er we leave our homes to travel, we place our well-being in the care of oth­ers; care delivered through cul­tur­al aware­ness, cre­ativ­ity, and craft, with com­mit­ments from indi­vidu­al and cor­por­ate com­munit­ies to provide trans­form­at­ive joy.

Those of us who have enjoyed long-last­ing careers in travel and hos­pit­al­ity unapo­lo­get­ic­ally believe that tour­ism is part of the care eco­nomy; the organ­ising found­a­tion of organ­ic life. With our focus placed on the well-being of oth­ers — hosts and guests — our ulti­mate reward is tied to moments of achieve­ment: ful­filling needs, solv­ing prob­lems, and mak­ing every­one happy. 

In the years to come, how­ever, ideal achieve­ments will have to recog­nise inflec­tion points tied to a revital­ised sense of pur­pose or mean­ing through, for example: 

• a real­isa­tion of shared prosper­ity, 
• a renew­al of social cap­it­al, 
• the res­ol­u­tion to inequit­ies, and 
• regen­er­at­ive prac­tices.  

All are pos­sib­il­it­ies when organ­isa­tions, gov­ern­ments, NGOs, and indi­vidu­als devote them­selves to the cre­ation of value for all stake­hold­ers; efforts requir­ing com­mit­ment, ‘soft’ skills, and unre­lent­ing work; work (not to be den­ig­rated) that can lead to deep and last­ing delight when it is dir­ec­ted towards things that mat­ter most. 

There are an immense num­ber of multi-faceted tour­ism-related careers (dir­ect and indir­ect) avail­able. These careers will evolve in response to not only tech­no­lo­gic­al devel­op­ments, but also to adjus­ted mind sets based on future-back points-of-view focused on pro­tect­ing valu­able cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al resources, improv­ing people’s lives, and unlock­ing peoples’ full potential. 

Com­pan­ies and com­munit­ies must work col­lab­or­at­ively with edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tions on ment­or­ing and train­ing, cor­rect­ing neg­lect, and activ­a­tion. Their pur­pose must be to cre­ate stra­tegic fit among all com­pon­ents of tour­ism, ensur­ing that every action taken enhances mutu­al bene­fits, and sup­ports the stra­tegic goals of employ­ers and the career goals of employ­ees. All are essen­tial acts of per­man­ent rein­ven­tion.

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In Spain, tourism graduates find work but earn less

Greg Richards, Professor, Breda University of Applied Sciences; Professor, Tilburg University, Netherlands

Is a travel & tour­ism career still attract­ive in 2025?

Appar­ently not in Spain. Research by Pérez and Aldás (2024) on the career tra­ject­or­ies of gradu­ates from Span­ish uni­ver­sit­ies [PDF in Span­ish] shows that tour­ism gradu­ates con­sist­ently earn less than their coun­ter­parts in oth­er fields, and are less likely to be work­ing at the level for which they should have been trained. 

The report argues “work in sec­tors such as hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism is more char­ac­ter­ised by sea­son­al­ity and […] lower qual­ity occu­pa­tions. This explains why the fields most linked to these sec­tors [ — tour­ism, hotel man­age­ment, events, gast­ro­nomy and culin­ary arts — ] have worse res­ults in the adjus­ted indic­at­ors of employment”. 

In terms of the pro­por­tion of gradu­ates work­ing at a level appro­pri­ate to their stud­ies four years after gradu­ation, the low­est rank­ings of all stud­ies are found in the gen­er­al area of tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity (with the excep­tion of criminology) 

• Gast­ro­nomy (Gast­ro­nomía y artes culin­ari­as) is ranked 28^th out of 32 fields in social sci­ences and law
• Hos­pit­al­ity man­age­ment (Gestión hotel­era) 29^th
• Crim­in­o­logy (Crim­in­o­lo­gía) 30^th
• Tour­ism (Tur­ismo) 31^st
• Events (Pro­to­colo y even­t­os) 32^nd

Inter­est­ingly, the field of events, which seemed to be a major tour­ism-related growth area in the wake of fall­ing num­bers of enroll­ments in tour­ism-related pro­grammes, is the low­est rated in terms of employ­ment for social sci­ence gradu­ates. This may explain why some events pro­grammes are now also strug­gling to attract students. 

Des­pite com­ments in the report about the qual­ity of tour­ism employ­ment, how­ever, tour­ism gradu­ates do not fare too badly in terms of secur­ing full-time and per­man­ent contracts.

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In Bhutan, a career in tourism is ‘still attractive’ but ‘no longer easy’

Dorji Dhradhul, author and creativist, Bhutan (former Director General, Bhutan Tourism)

In 2025, a career in travel and tour­ism remains attract­ive; espe­cially in Bhutan, where the tour­ism policy is shaped by the vis­ion­ary approach of High Value, Low Volume (HVLV). 

Unlike mass tour­ism des­tin­a­tions that pri­or­it­ise vis­it­or num­bers, Bhutan emphas­ises sus­tain­ab­il­ity, cul­tur­al integ­rity, and envir­on­ment­al pre­ser­va­tion. This makes the tour­ism sec­tor in Bhutan both pres­ti­gi­ous and purposeful.

How­ever, Bhutan’s tour­ism land­scape is under­go­ing a trans­form­a­tion. It is no longer the ‘low­est hanging fruit’ that once allowed cas­u­al, low-effort par­ti­cip­a­tion to flour­ish. The new era of Bhu­tanese tour­ism demands pro­fes­sion­al­ism, pas­sion, and a long-term vision. 

For young people con­sid­er­ing a career in tour­ism, the most import­ant thing to under­stand is that it is no longer a fall­back option or a side hustle; it must be treated as a ser­i­ous, full-fledged profession.

To thrive in this space, young aspir­ants must equip them­selves with strong eth­ic­al val­ues, innov­at­ive think­ing, and deep know­ledge of Bhutan’s unique selling points: spir­itu­al­ity, cul­ture, envir­on­ment, and the philo­sophy of Gross Nation­al Hap­pi­ness. They must be ready to cre­ate mean­ing­ful, high-qual­ity exper­i­ences for dis­cern­ing vis­it­ors who seek depth.

Moreover, the future of tour­ism in Bhutan calls for new com­pet­en­cies: digit­al flu­ency, storytelling skills, sus­tain­ab­il­ity lit­er­acy, and an abil­ity to con­nect glob­al trends with loc­al real­it­ies. It also calls for build­ing net­works, con­trib­ut­ing to nation-build­ing, and pos­i­tion­ing Bhutan as a beacon of respons­ible tourism.

In essence, a career in tour­ism in Bhutan is still attract­ive, but it is no longer easy. It requires com­mit­ment, com­pet­ence, and care. 

Those who are ser­i­ous about join­ing this noble pro­fes­sion will not only find it reward­ing but also play a vital role in safe­guard­ing Bhutan’s iden­tity while advan­cing its glob­al presence.

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Featured image (top of post)

Map image with sym­bols by Har­ish Sharma (CC0) from Pixabay. “GT” added the ques­tion: “So, you want a career in tour­ism?” and the year “2025”.

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

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• Butler’s conun­drum: Air travel and ‘sus­tain­able’ tourism
• What is tourism’s biggest oppor­tun­ity and/or threat where you are in 2025?
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• What did tour­ism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?
• In 2024, what are the best oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism over the next five years?
• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
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• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
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• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
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• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
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