Strategic Career Plan: Aspiring Tour Operator at British Airways

This report presents a comprehensive personal analysis, including a SWOT assessment, aimed at securing a Tour Operator position at British Airways. It details strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats relevant to the role, alongside a strategic career action plan outlining specific goals, strategies, and resources for self-improvement. The action plan focuses on technological training, internship opportunities, attending industry events, enhancing cultural sensitivity, and personal development. The report also includes a curriculum vitae, showcasing relevant work experience and skills, and concludes with references to support the analysis and proposed strategies. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering a wide range of study resources, including past papers and solved assignments, to support students in their academic and professional journeys.

CAREER VIEWPOINT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PERSONAL ANALYSIS ...........................................................................................................3
CAREER ACTION PLAN..........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
Appendix .........................................................................................................................................2
CV................................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
This report will include self-reflection and assessment by accomplishing a personal
analysis and it will also cover the current knowledge, abilities, experiences and skills including
both academic and other areas. Further, A clear action plan, highlighting the changes and
improvements required is formed keeping the job role in mind.
The job opportunity identified is of a 'tour operator' at British airways, it is an airline
company working in travel and tourism sector. The company is seeking a tour operator who
possess good communication skills, is well qualified and is also excellent in time management.
Lastly, report will also mention the curriculum vitae.
MAIN BODY
PERSONAL ANALYSIS
It is the evaluation of an individual's self and assessment of an individual in detail under
the context of a specific situation. Here I am using personal SWOT analysis to put forward the
critical evaluation of strengths, weakness, opportunity and threat in the light of the job role of a
tour guide. Strengths are qualities or abilities possessed by an individual, weaknesses are those
factors which inhibits a person's potential to work, hindering the growth, opportunities are the
chances and potential qualities that one can acquire and threats are anything that can negatively
impact an individual. Personal analysis is important to know the critical aspect of an individual's
overall self. Let's discuss the personal SWOT analysis in detail.
STRENGTHS:
Strengths are the abilities and qualities an individual possesses. One of the biggest
strengths is good communication skills. In the travel and tourism industry having good
communication skills is a prerequisite, as, an operator has to communicate one on one basis to
assure harmony and good relationships at workplace. I also have the ability to easily understand
and articulate, which comes handy to an operator in dealing with customers. Further I possess the

physical ability to command attention & ability to project voice across group of people as, a
good tour operator should be able to address large number of people. This job role requires
quality of remaining approachable and answering questions with calmness even under times of
pressure, and I have the same qualities in dealing with people. When it comes to academic
qualification, this job role requires management related degrees and this makes me suitable
applicant as I have a degree in management which will help me in handling, directing, assessing
and understanding the operations of this job role better (Chow, 2022). Having a good problem
solving approach and the ability to critically think will help in getting the job done in a better
way at the work place. A strong level of confidence in the performance of work has been my
forte, and this could help me in improving the delivery of work assigned.
WEAKNESSES:
Here weakness represents the shortcomings of a person in performing a particular job
role. One of the weaknesses I am working towards is the lack of basic work experience, as
having no previous work experience can lead to a delay in developing understanding of work in
corporate environment at British airways. Further, as I come from a management academic
background, I do not possess any technological knowledge of the industry, and it is really
important to have technical know how of the British airway's in order to understand software,
robotics, automation and machine handling. Due to having less cultural exposure I do not have
understanding of foreign languages & intercultural sensitivity (Santa and Tiatco, 2019). And
ability to work with big team including people from various backgrounds requires a tour operator
to have cultural exposure for establishing better understanding between staff. My hesitation
towards delegating different tasks and responsibilities is also a weakness as it can burden me up
with a lot of work which can result in high pressure leading to a bad performance at the
workplace. Spending too much time on thinking and planning a task, leaves me with less time for
performing a job, for achieving perfection in the work I tend to give more time towards planning
which can impact overall performance.
OPPORTUNITIES:
As travel and tourism sector is booming, it gives opportunity to have a high prospect
career moving forward in this industry. The Biggest opportunity is availability of various

technological training programmes available both online and offline, which can help me improve
my technical knowledge of aviation & tourism industry, this will improve my chances of getting
this job role. Taking such trainings arranged by travel companies will be extremely helpful in
closely knowing the operational depth of this sector. Various travel companies often conduct
many seminars and meet ups for the new entrants to have better understanding and exposure of
this sector, this is a great opportunity, as attending such seminars will enhance the knowledge
further and will add up to the CV. Having passion towards tourism and travel industry gives me
more opportunity to have a creative approach in completing training programmes effectively.
With everything going digital, various internship programmes in tourism and travel industry are
also available online which can help in researching & making of itinerary and preparing tour
guides etc (Chen and et.al., 2021). Another important opportunity I can access is working on
personal development skills, this includes personality traits, personal attributes, self
improvement and strengthening of knowledge. It is important as it allows creating tactical and
strategical plans for professional growth, and also helps in building better interpersonal
relationships, it improves better self presentation while appearing for personal interviews.
THREATS:
Threat is the risks and vulnerabilities which can negatively affect the work of an
individual. As travel and tourism industry has seen a big fall in its revenues & profits and
employees got fired in pandemic it exposes a big threat to the personnel’s working in this
industry (Lim and To, 2022). When pandemic hit UK in 2019, people stopped travelling
completely and government also established many rules and regulation which ultimately made it
difficult for aviation, travel and tourism industry to stay afloat, as a result they fired employees in
large numbers to cut down the cost. Therefore, uncertainty makes it as a big threat for me in this
industry. Another critical threat is AI (artificial intelligence), Covid times changed various
aspects of working in travel industry. One such aspect is reduction in manpower because of the
contagious virus which in turn resulted in introduction of artificial intelligence, robotics,
automation in the industry. It requires me to remain totally updated with all the new
technological aspects in the industry in order to survive even in difficult times. competition is
also one of the most critical threats as there is high competition in the tour and travel industry,

many well qualified and experienced individuals are already working in this industry and this
makes even the survival difficult in long term.
CAREER ACTION PLAN
A career action plan is a systematic and structured planning document managed and
owned by young people who intend to focus on their career development in order to have a
dynamic growth (Peila-Shuster and et.al., 2021). An action plan will help in self reflection by
setting the goals straight and mentioning the plans and strategies required to achieve such goals.
This action plan will help in clarifying the exact changes and improvements I require. Given
below is a detailed career action plan.
GOALS STRETAGIES RESOURCES TIME REQUIRED
Technological training Taking online or
offline technical
courses or trainings in
order to improve
technical know-how of
the tourism industry.
As it boosts
competence and gives
an edge in performing
tech related tasks.
Online platforms like
DEBCO,
COMPUTEAM
websites.
30 days
Internship To acquire the work
experience, joining
internships at various
companies in tourism
and travel industry like
Working at tourism
companies like British
airways, EASE easy
jet etc.
2 months

British airways etc.
will help to fulfil
experience related
requirements of this
job role. This can help
in building better
interpersonal
relationships at the
work Place (Belhassen,
Caton and Vahaba,
2020). As, internship
will provide first
handed knowledge and
it will help in
improving curriculum
vitae.
Attending Meet Ups
and career-oriented
events
For further
enhancement of
knowledge of tourism
and travel industry
attending seminar,
meet ups which are
conducted by various
travel companies. This
will benefit in deriving
knowledge from
experienced
individuals.
Various tour firms
conducting meet ups,
counsellings and
seminars.
7 days
Cultural sensitivity Increasing interaction
with people from
Attending cultural and
various regional group
7 days

different cultures and
regions can improve
the understanding
towards different
individuals in the
tourism industry.
events involving both
industry and non
industry individuals.
Personal development Attending personality
development
programmes and
adapting such traits in
regular life. Personal
development is an
important aspect as this
helps people carry
themselves in an
advanced manner
(Albrecht and et.al.,
2022).
Platforms like udemy
and offline classroom
programs can be a
great source.
7 days
CONCLUSION
The above report has comprehensively depicted the personal analysis including strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats, for the purpose of getting the job role of a tour operator in
British airways. Further, report has mentioned a detailed and strategic career action plan
highlighting various goals, strategies and resources which are required for the self reflection and
improvement. Also, a dynamic CV (curriculum vitae) has been formed.

REFERENCES
BOOKS AND JOURNALS
Albrecht, J. N. and et.al., 2022. Learning about learning in tourism: indigenous guide
perspectives on their personal and professional development. Journal of Hospitality &
Tourism Research. 46(2). pp.320-343.
Belhassen, Y., Caton, K. and Vahaba, C., 2020. Boot camps, bugs, and dreams: Metaphor
analysis of internship experiences in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality,
Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education. 27. p.100228.
Chen, T. L. and et.al., 2021. To stay or not to stay? The causal effect of interns’ career intention
on enhanced employability and retention in the hospitality and tourism industry. Journal
of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education. 28. p.100305.
Chow, K. K., 2022. Towards a Strengths-Based Personal Informatics Framework for
Transformative Tourism Experiences: A Phenomenological Study on Serious Leisure
Practitioners. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2022:
Proceedings of the ENTER 2022 eTourism Conference, January 11–14, 2022 (p. 331).
Springer Nature.
Lim, W. M. and To, W.M., 2022. The economic impact of a global pandemic on the tourism
economy: The case of COVID-19 and Macao’s destination-and gambling-dependent
economy. Current Issues in Tourism. 25(8). pp.1258-1269.
Peila-Shuster, J. J. and et.al., 2021. Turning the page: A career construction counseling group
design for mid-to-late career unemployed adults. The Journal for Specialists in Group
Work. 46(2). pp.172-186.
Santa, E. D. and Tiatco, A., 2019. Tourism, heritage and cultural performance: Developing a
modality of heritage tourism. Tourism Management Perspectives. 31. pp.301-309.
Online references
A, B., 2018. [Online]. Available through <>
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Appendix
CV
WORK EXPERIENCE
Wherehouse operative
Tk Maxx - Walsall
June 2018 to January 2020
Picking and packing.
Selecting and sorting.
Ensuring that the quality of goods is at the highest standards.
Shipping and receiving items.
Warehouse Operative/Picker
Italian Showers - Provaglio d'Iseo
April 2012 to April 2015
Picking and packing.
Selecting and sorting.
Ensuring that the quality of goods is at the highest standards.
3

Shipping and receiving items.
Pizza Chef
I Nobili - Gussago
October 2009 to March 2012
Preparing ingredients for pizza.
Making pizza dough.
Preparing and cooking pizza.
Responsible for own station.
Chef/ Pizza Chef
Bärenschenke - Oppenau
May 2007 to February 2009
Preparing ingredients for pizza and pasta.
Making pizza dough.
Preparing pizza and pasta dishes.
4