Labour pain for travel sector: Agencies poaching staff to beat shortage

Smaller outfits losing customers, many firms outsourcing to larger players to stay afloat

Wanted air ticketing staff! Such messages are becoming increasingly common in WhatsApp chat groups of travel agents.

This comes in the wake of the tourism sector seeing a revival with the waning of Covid and re-opening of borders.
 

However, agency staff members, who were left jobless during the pandemic, haven’t returned in equal numbers, posing problems for travel firms.
 

The challenge is especially being felt by “mom-and-pop” set ups that lack the capital to invest in automation.  
 

“Travel agencies are poaching each others staff by offering higher pay. Those who earn Rs 30,000 a month are being offered salaries of Rs 40,000-50,000,” said Rajat Bagaria, managing director (MD), Srishti Tours & Travels.
 

“There’s strong demand for travel but agents are finding it difficult to service customers due to a shortage of employees. Some smaller ones are even losing customers,” Bagaria said.
 

While there is a staff crunch across departments such as visas, tours and ticketing, the impact is largely felt in air ticketing that requires trained hands.
 

For instance, ticket re-issuance requires calculation of fares and date change penalty and this is something that only comes with experience.

According to an airline executive, 80-85 per cent of air tickets in India are sold by online and offline agents and the rest by airlines on their websites or apps. Within that, offline agents have a share of 50-55 per cent in domestic flight sales and about 70 per cent in international flights.
 

Last Sunday, domestic airlines carried 409,831 passengers — the highest since the resumption of flights in May 2020.

The feat was repeated on Sunday, with airlines transporting over 400,000 passengers.
 

Domestic air traffic is back to pre-Covid levels despite a capacity constraint.
 

Jammu & Kashmir has received 14 million tourists in 2022, the bulk of whom visited Vaishnodevi shrine.
 

But a labour crunch is making it difficult for some to participate in this growth. 
 

While the current number is not available, the number of travel agencies during pre-pandemic in the country was estimated to be over 50,000.
 

These include companies providing air tickets, tours and destination management services. According to Bagaria, there is a staff shortage of 20-25 per cent across the industry.
 

“The entire tourism and hospitality industry is struggling with staff shortages. Many who left or were let go during Covid have not returned as they see no job security in the sector. Also, hundreds of hospitality and tourism employees have been recruited in Qatar, which is hosting the World Cup,” said Jyoti Mayal, president of Travel Agents Association of India.
 

“I see this leading to greater collaboration and consolidation in the travel industry. Companies that do not have requisite staff or technological tools will outsource business to larger travel companies,” Mayal added.
 

“Some of our staff members are working for three-four days a week. There is definitely a staff shortage. It is difficult to find good candidates. Even tourism institutes are not getting enough students who want to pursue courses. We are trying our best to resolve the issue,” said Rajiv Mehra, president of Indian Association of Tour Operators.
 

In a statement, travel technology solutions company Amadeus said it is seeing an upward trend in demand for its products that help agents in re-issuance of tickets and refunds, among others.
 

Large online portals such as MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip said they aren’t facing any staffing issues.
 

“There is no shortage of manpower for larger organisations and there is no major shift (in business share) from offline to online. However, the long-term outlook is very robust for online agents and they will see consistent growth,” said Gaurav Patwari, vice-president (air), Cleartrip.com.
 

“From what we see on our travel agent's platform, it doesn't look like an issue. We have on-boarded 30,000 travel agents pan Indian, almost all of whom are active on our platform. During the pandemic and the initial recovery period, there were challenges surrounding the industry's talent market. This was especially in the technology field, but now the situation has improved,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder & chief executive officer (CEO) at MakeMyTrip.