Tour Leader Manager

Full Job Description

Job Description

About us

Our mission is simple, to Improve life through travel. Exodus Travels is one of the world’s leading adventure travel companies delivering extraordinary travelling experiences across more than 90 countries worldwide.

Providing unparalleled expertise and local knowledge, our exceptional guides on the ground and teams in our worldwide offices have been crafting amazing travel experiences for years.

Our values are to Bring Happiness, Take Responsibility, Be Ambitious and Always Passionate, they underpin the work that we do and act as a reminder of why we do it. We are looking for people who can embrace our values and live them every day.

Summary

Our tours are sourced via a huge range of DMCs globally. But in Europe many of our trips are contracted directly via a team of Product & Operations Managers and the Leader Manager will feed into this team known as Self-Operated. The goal of this team is to deliver the best customer on-trip experience on these self-operated trips - and you will help deliver this through choice and management of inspirational tour leaders, across Italy, France, Spain and a small selection of other European destinations.

The Opportunity:

We are looking for a Tour Leader Manager to join our team in Surbiton, UK. You will be responsible to manage the tour team of up to 40 depending on the season. We are looking for someone with strong leadership skills and someone passionate about the travel industry. You will oversee on-tour leader performance by analysing feedback from customers and tour leaders by departure, and action any feedback to drive positive change.

What you will be doing:

• Recruit all Tour Leaders with the very best expertise for our directly contracted self-operated Exodus tours
• Be responsible for and log legal requirements including travel insurance renewal, first aid certification, passport and visa requirements, and check guide certifications and qualifications
• Understanding of local/national/EU work legislation applicable to Exodus tours regarding leader qualification requirements
• Negotiate Leader daily rates and mitigate travel costs in line with agreed budgets and guidelines
• Build out schedule for the following 12 months in line with Product Managers and assign leaders to each trip according to qualification requirements and leader availability & experience
• Maintain regular and positive communication with Tour Leaders, providing support and training either in-person or virtually
• Support Leaders with any on trip problems, challenges and operational changes
• Manage work under pressure when last minute rescheduling of leaders if needed throughout the season due to capacity changes or emergency situations, working in collaboration with local guide agencies as needed
• Keep leader management processes updated and efficient to optimize workload and teamwork
• Participate in the Leader of the Year Awards and manage content of webpages related to leaders (Expert leaders, Leader Awards, Hall of Fame)

Training and People Management:

• Provide Leaders with full training regarding our expectations on our tours in terms of health and safety requirements, on-tour logistics and organization, booking monitoring, post-tour reporting and expenses systems, to help set leader expectations
• Support and share documentation such as Leader Handbook and other online training documents in coordination with Product Managers, Operational Quality team and other relevant depts
• Visit leaders in destination for continued communication and assessment & to understand logistics and tackle potential challenges
• Assist Customer Services and Customer Operations team with any complaints and feedback

Accounting and Administration:

• Manage trip funds, trip expenses and manage and log budgets for upcoming seasons
• Accounts support on payments and invoicing relevant to role
• Support Leader Travel process for pre/post tour dates
• Manage vehicle-related tasks/admin in collaboration with fleet manager: vehicle storage & maintenance, legal requirements, leader training, and any related paperwork
• Provide leaders with the correct branded collateral and branded clothing, ensuring this is worn and used consistently on trip.

What we are looking for:

• A motivated and inspiring individual to help deliver outstanding experiences to our customers and profit to the business
• Experience of Leader Management in a travel or tour operator business
• Excellent attention to detail and organisational skills
• An inspiring leader who can offer constructive feedback to drive and improve excellent service scores
• Good written English, second language of Italian beneficial but not essential
• A willingness to learn and develop and challenge process and ways of working to find a better solution
• Ability to prioritise and manage workloads on a day to day basis
• An understanding or experience in outdoor or adventurous activities such as trekking, walking or cycling
• 1 – 2 days a week in the Surbiton office.

Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Together we will cultivate a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment, where all our people can flourish and are encouraged to be their unique selves. We are committing to implement meaningful change within our culture by increasing awareness of and counteracting unconscious bias, eradicating systemic barriers, embracing diversity, and engaging all employees in the process.

Our Commitment to People, Places & Planet

Exodus Adventure Travels has always been passionate about making a positive impact on the people we meet, places we visit and the planet we explore. With all of our adventures, we engage and support the people of local communities and the nature that surrounds them.

We’re extremely proud of becoming a Certified B Corp. This global stamp of approval recognises Exodus Adventure Travels as a purpose-driven company dedicated to continuous improvement and becoming ‘even better’ in terms of our social and environmental impact, using travel as a force for good.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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