How to hire a travel manager

How to hire a travel manager, step by step

Here's a step-by-step travel manager hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a travel manager job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new travel manager
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a travel manager do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the travel manager you need to hire. Certain travel manager roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a travel manager to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a travel manager that fits the bill.

   This list presents travel manager salaries for various positions.

   Type of Travel Manager	Description	Hourly rate
   Travel Manager	Travel agents sell transportation, lodging, and entertainment activities to individuals and groups planning trips. They offer advice on destinations, plan trip itineraries, and make travel arrangements for clients... Show more	$21-47
   Corporate Travel Consultant	As corporate travel agents, they primarily work to coordinate all travel-related concerns such, reservation, flight cancellations, itinerary adjustments, and other unanticipated circumstances happen. They work in travel agencies or departments handling personnel travel details... Show more	$15-37
   Travel Service Consultant	A travel service consultant is responsible for recommending travel packages and other related travel services upon determining clients' needs and budget limitations. Travel service consultants manage travel plans and ensure that the clients won't have any problems from transportation to accommodation... Show more	$18-39

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Booking
   • Reservations
   • Customer Service
   • Travel Industry
   • Card Program
   • Hotel Reservations
   • Cost Savings
   • Travel Arrangements
   • Global Travel Program
   • Policy Compliance
   • International Travel
   • Corporate Travel
   • GDS
   • Ground Transportation

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Negotiate fares and manage reservations for group participants using a limit budget and contract agreements with airlines
   • Arrange VIP travel on corporate jet and communicate with pilot to ensure efficient scheduling.
   • Handle VIP travel on corporate jet and work closely with pilot to ensure efficient time schedules.
   • Help with converting browser base implementation to a completely WPF implementation, resulting in thrice the speed and performance gain.
   • Implement automated on-line travel booking via Internet.
   • Collaborate with international sites to implement their internet base travel booking tool.

   More travel manager duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the travel manager job description is a good way to get more applicants. A travel manager salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a travel manager in Utah may be lower than in Idaho, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level travel manager. Additionally, a travel manager with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average travel manager salary

   $66,782yearly

   $32.11 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level travel manager salary

   $45,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 24, 2026

   Average travel manager salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$94,517	$45
   2	Wisconsin	$90,390	$43
   3	Indiana	$88,963	$43
   4	Illinois	$81,785	$39
   5	Massachusetts	$81,478	$39
   6	Connecticut	$76,498	$37
   7	Nevada	$76,205	$37
   8	Rhode Island	$75,731	$36
   9	Kansas	$73,907	$36
   10	Colorado	$71,086	$34
   11	Virginia	$68,995	$33
   12	New York	$68,946	$33
   13	Texas	$64,877	$31
   14	Ohio	$64,564	$31
   15	Oregon	$63,738	$31
   16	Washington	$63,573	$31
   17	Arizona	$63,498	$31
   18	Pennsylvania	$63,237	$30
   19	Michigan	$62,741	$30
   20	Georgia	$59,402	$29

   Average travel manager salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Morgan Lewis	$148,293	$71.29
   2	Bloomberg	$123,356	$59.31
   3	Parsons	$122,767	$59.02
   4	Accenture	$115,915	$55.73
   5	TripActions	$109,635	$52.71
   6	Adobe	$108,399	$52.11
   7	General Electric	$88,812	$42.70
   8	M&T Bank	$81,877	$39.36
   9	Aya Healthcare	$77,607	$37.31
   10	Wikimedia Foundation	$77,232	$37.13
   11	Xator	$76,739	$36.89
   12	Carlson Companies	$73,150	$35.17
   13	Allianz Life	$71,615	$34.43
   14	Dsi	$70,485	$33.89
   15	Leidos	$70,353	$33.82
   16	Collette	$64,368	$30.95
   17	Fairstead	$60,973	$29.31
   18	Live Nation Entertainment	$60,904	$29.28
   19	Shake Shack	$60,493	$29.08
   20	Flight Centre	$58,345	$28.05	27

4. Writing a travel manager job description

   A travel manager job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. Below, you can find an example of a travel manager job description:

   Travel manager job description example

   United States, Georgia, Atlanta
   
   Enterprise Digital Strategy
   
   20-Jul-2022
   
   Ref #: 16082
   
   How you'll help us Keep Climbing (overview & key responsibilities)
   
   Delta's International Travel Documents team is seeking a Manager to improve Delta's international travel experience and drive revenue growth. International travel continues to increase in complexity, through the global pandemic. Governments have diverse and dynamic requirements for entry (e.g., Health Credentials, Forms, Visas, etc.). This role will work to prepare customers for travel and in turn reduce cancelled or rebooked trips.
   
   This individual will drive the International Travel Documents team's vision to enable a simpler customer experience related to international travel readiness by collaborating with stakeholders across Global Distribution and Digital Strategy, Government Affairs, the Health / Testing group, Passenger Facilitation, ACS, Alliances, IT, Supply Chain, Vendors and other commercial teams.
   
   The moving target will be to make Delta easier to do business with and help our operations by providing customers the ability to navigate government requirements and documents needed to travel.
   
   The selected candidate will have strong business acumen, commercial knowledge, understanding of the organization, technical abilities, experience in leadership, influence and communications skills for inputs into decisions while incorporating stakeholder input across multiple functions while working with a team delivering on short-term and long-term corporate needs.
   
   The function will report to GM - International Travel Docs. This position is based in Atlanta, GA.
   
   Primary Functions
   
   + Contribute to the development and execution of the International Travel Document Strategy. It will require enterprise stakeholder input and collaboration (Global Distribution & Digital Strategy, ACS, Res, Government Affairs, Commercial Teams, etc.) to work on the outcomes that are being delivered. Those outcomes will consider the customer experience, operational and technical requirements as well as business readiness needs to ensure clarity improved experience for our customers.
   
   + Work with cross-enterprise stakeholders and vendors to highlight open issues and risks; proactively problem solve, report on success metrics, and communicate decisions to best prepare the impacted business units for when updates are being made.
   
   + Represent the Travel Documents work in the IT planning process (Portfolio and Quarterly Increment Planning), develop requirements and work with partners to manage delivery of functionality.
   
   + Must be able to understand work between APCs, IT and impacts to operations and maintain awareness of interdependencies and sequencing of the work needed and readiness.
   
   + Support International Travel Documents Product Leaders in delivering enhancements to existing products.
   
   What you need to succeed (minimum qualifications)
   
   + 6+ years of relevant working experience in strategy, business intelligence, data analytics, or project management.
   
   + Demonstrated leadership experience in developing strategy, managing complex processes and a proven record of delivering results working across various divisions (commercial, operations, IT).
   
   + Must be capable of managing multiple priorities and escalating conflicts in prioritization.
   
   + Must have the ability to work well with diverse groups in a time sensitive and team environment with minimal supervision, be results oriented and capable of meeting or exceeding deadlines with attention to detail and follow through.
   
   + Experience in at least one commercial function in an airline environment such as Alliances, Digital, Distribution, Loyalty, Network Planning, Revenue Management or Sales Must be performing satisfactorily in present position.
   
   + Where permitted by applicable law, must have received or be willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by date of hire to be considered for U.S.-based job, if not currently employed by Delta Air Lines, Inc.
   
   What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications)
   
   + BA/BS or advanced degree in quantitative discipline such as Business Administration, Economics, or Finance. MBA/MA/MS preferred.
   
   Delta Air Lines, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer and provides reasonable accommodation in its application process for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you are a qualified individual, you may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to access job openings through this site, apply for jobs through Delta's online system, or at any point in the selection process. To request a reasonable accommodation, please click here

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right travel manager for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with travel managers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit travel managers who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your travel manager job on Zippia to find and recruit travel manager candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites such as salesjobs, salesheads, allretailjobs.com, sales trax.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit travel managers, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new travel manager

   Once you've selected the best travel manager candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   To prepare for the new travel manager first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a travel manager?