Travolution Summit 2022: Travel must sell itself to compete for digital talent

Travel Republic boss says there is no better place for young tech talent to cut their teeth

Travel have a job to do to promote the industry as an exciting, agile and dynamic pace to work if it is to attract the best digital talent, according to the boss of Travel Republic.

Speaking at last week’s Travolution European Summit Antonio Felino, who originally joined travel as a graduate with Thomas Cook, said the sector finds it hard to compete on salaries.

But he said the nature of travel as a fast-paced, low-margin online retail environment means there is nowhere better for UX, data and digital marketing experts to learn their trade.

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The dnata Group, which owns Travel Republic, is looking at reviving a graduate scheme for next year plans for which were shelved due to the COVID pandemic, said Felino.

“For me the travel industry is a great industry to be in, especially from a digital side,” he said. 

“We are in a highly competitive, low margin industry so there's probably no better place to cut your teeth from an e-commerce online perspective.

“I’d say you should be looking at the OTA space in order to come and learn about digital because actually the thought processes and training is no different regardless of industries.”

Felino said Travel Republic was about to take on a graduate from Kingston University, where the company is based, in its performance marketing team.

“We've been working with a number of colleges, specifically to identify people leaving to be able to bring into our business,” he said.

But Felino revealed how others sectors our outcompeting travel in terms of salaries saying Travel Republic recently lost someone to the fintech sector for a 50% increase in pay.

“Some of the other sectors from a salary perspective are outstripping us. These skills are absolutely on high demand, rightly so, so there are other industries paying more. 

“We pay well, but we can’t compete with some of those increases. It’s really difficult. We have been looking at opportunities to leverage our group assets be that in Dubai or in India and we also have operations in the Philippines ad Belgrade.

“We have been trying to make the most of own ecosystem to counter some of the challenges that we have here at home. We can’t just keep fighting and paying to some degree over the odds to compete with the likes of fintech.”

Although Travel Republic is operating flexibly in terms of where people are based Felino said you cannot beat being face to face and it is currently requiring staff to be in the office for at least three days a week.

Dnata has a separate group resources in the UK and Dubai for data scientists and it also makes use of a wider Emirates group function.

“It’s a bit easier to recruit in Dubai for some of those skill sets. Listening to the challenges we have about recruiting developers, UX is a real challenge right now and data scientists too, I think we are all very much in the same boat.

“It’s tough, but we’ve got to work really hard to sell the industry and how exciting it is and how dynamic and agile it is, because it truly is.”

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