Collette reviews

Too often there was more focus on sales numbers than quality of product. As costs went up, sometimes too many cuts were made, that hurt the quality of the tours. It was hard to justify that to unhappy guests. While the company has at times shown great support to certain individuals and the staff as a whole, it is inconsistent, and a number of managers were not supportive of certain staff members. Inconsistency in professionalism. There was too much focus, in recent years, on advanced degrees to the exclusion of experience and talent. Training was minimal, and almost exclusively focused on new internal systems and procedures. Real professional development opportunities were non-existent for Tour Managers. There were many instances of rolling out programs to guests without communicating to staff. The Tour Management Department leadership was not staffed enough to ride a long with Tour Managers, so reviews were strictly based on guest surveys. Every survey from every tour counted even if there was a major problem with the tour that was completely out of your control. Pay is not very high and there is not much encouragement for guests to tip. They use the charity support for promotion so much that it makes on question the true motivation for it. As a Tour Manager expect to lead tours to places you have never been and consider yourself lucky to ever get any destination training. You will be "sold" as an expert in the destination, even if you have never set foot on the continent.

Some territories are quite large and require 50-70% travel if you are really working hard with sales Starting salary isn't great... There is a long sales cycle... 12-18 months average for a group to travel