Travel recruiters and human resource experts have two opportunities to meet tourism academics this year to influence course content and to discuss what knowledge and skills graduates need to enter the travel and tourism industry.

ABTA, The Tourism Society and the ITT are co-hosting the Tourism Academics & Employers Conferences again in 2009 after two very successful conferences in 2008. This year’s conferences will be held on 18 March at Leeds Metropolitan University and 1 June at the Strand Palace Hotel in London and have the theme: “Overcoming Employment Challenges in Tourism”.

“Despite tighter budget restrictions this year, there are still employment opportunities for tourism graduates, as long as their skills fit,” says Vicki Wolf, ABTA’s Education Liaison Executive. “These events can help the industry get the recruits they want.”

Professor Rhodri Thomas,ITT Professor of Tourism and Events Policy UK Centre for Events Management Leeds Metropolitan University said: “These conferences provide an invaluable opportunity for a genuine exchange of knowledge between academics and practitioners.  The spirit of partnership is evident and very productive.”

Many tourism graduates work for local and regional travel organisations and as the Olympics in 2012 draw closer, keynote speaker Bernard Donoghue, Head of Government and Public Affairs at VisitBritain, will talk from a UK tourism perspective on the Future of Tourism: "Global recession and the credit crunch pose huge challenges for the British economy but also create opportunities for tourism too. I'm very pleased to be asked to contribute this important and timely conference."

Jayne Webb Head of Human Resources at The Co-operative Travel Group, which won the Springboard ‘Best Employer Award’ in 2008, will be part of an industry panel said: “The Co-operative Group has a very highly regarded graduate placement programme and we have over 600 staff studying towards travel and tourism related NVQs.  To date we have not specifically looked to recruit travel and tourism graduates and this session will give us the opportunity to discuss the skills we require and find out more about what is on offer from tourism academics in both further and higher education.”

To book your place contact Vicki Wolf on vwolf@abta.co.uk or Flo Powell on flo@tourismsociety.org. 

To book your place contact Flo Powell at the Tourism Society on flo@tourismsociety.org 02086614636 or Vicki Wolf at ABTA on vwolf@abta.co.uk. 020 3117 0549