Common Tourism Career Fields

career fields of tourismTourism is both a rewarding and a challenging career field to work in. Tourism is a major industry in many parts of the world and supports a vast number of professional positions and venues. Tourist destinations are places that people travel to for leisure, and those places must be staffed by working professionals. Several significant types of tourism niches are events coordination, hospitality and landmark destinations.

Events coordination involves setting up and running event venues. Places like civic centers, concert halls, arenas, stadiums and all other meeting or performance spaces have events coordinators. These professionals are responsible for booking events, preparing for them and overseeing their execution. Events coordination is offered as a degree emphasis in many schools and is a very well respected career field.

Hospitality is a closely related industry, constituting the operations of any facility that people rent for personal use. This includes event and meeting spaces, hotels, timeshares and resorts. Hospitality professionals fill positions such as concierge, hotel manager, front desk staff and event venue staff. Hospitality is a necessary industry to tourism. When people travel, they require temporary business and personal space, which ensures the longevity of hospitality.

Landmark destinations are anything that people travel to in order to experience them. This may include a national park, famous architecture, a vacation region or any other large scale form of entertainment or recreation. Landmark destinations are a huge driving force behind tourism. A majority of landmark destinations require staff to oversee them. This may be a ranger station or concessionaire, or simply the staff of a large facility. These professions are what keep major tourist destinations operational.

For those seeking careers in the tourism industry, there is a long list of professions to choose from. The first step is determining where your particular passion for tourism lies. Do you want to be in customer service or behind the scenes? Do you want to be in management or at a lower professional level? What aspect of tourism interest you the most?