Someone’s missing from today’s business travel – tomorrow’s buyers
By Travel Buyers Think Tank, Jennifer Steinke
Irecently attended an industry event and when I looked around the room of a few hundred people, I thought, “Whoa, where is the next generation of buyers?” I see retirement on my horizon – granted it may be 6 or 8 years away, but that time will fly by – and everyone I was looking at was in my same age range or even older. How are we grooming new people to come into the industry? Why is this not an attractive field to young people? I have a theory – they have no clue!.
No clue, that is, that a lucrative career can be had in corporate travel. When my kids are asked, “What does your mom do for a living?” they say, “I don’t know – something in travel.” Despite my telling them that, No, I am not a travel agent (not that a travel agent is bad, it is where I got my start, and Lord knows we need more of them, too). And, No, I can’t get your friends a deal on a cruise – nevertheless, this is what I continue to hear. If I say I work in procurement, it lacks the luster and doesn’t reflect what we really do.
We do amazing things for our companies! We build strong relationships with our travelers, internal stakeholders and our suppliers. Not only do we “source” our program suppliers but we own the relationships. We are our own stakeholders and we love our industry peers. We have a lot more fun than some industries. We often get to experience the world. And we get to think big!
So, what are we going to do about this conundrum? We need to find the young versions of us. I really feel that higher education is the answer. The challenge is that many colleges and universities have amazing hospitality programs, but they rarely have a focus on corporate travel as a career path. Even supply chain and procurement programs rarely identify corporate travel as a specialty.
Our industry needs to help change this. Our associations should be offering everything from free student memberships to setting up speakers to come into hospitality and business schools to give educators and students insights into the opportunities that are available to the next generation. Give them a clue of what an incredible career they could have in a dynamic and ever-changing industry.
My own career evolved from travel school, to travel consultant, to agency management, to travel manager, to procurement director, managing spend from $3 million to over $150 million and hopefully one day, retirement. Why don’t we start at the beginning – we need more travel consultants. How about we figure out a way to groom them from let’s say community and technical colleges? Bring them up through the ranks and build real career path education. Travel consultants today to travel buyers tomorrow. No need to go into a ton of debt; together as a community, we can build these programs and deliver them to institutions and students.
I never thought at the age of 19 when I decided to go to travel school that I would be where I am today. I just thought I was going to travel the world for free. Those days may be gone, but now I can afford to travel on my own dime. Yes, it took a lot of hard work. I continued my education, got my MBA and added industry certifications, but that doesn’t change who I am and the passion that I have for this industry.
We can develop new talent. Now who wants to join me on this journey?