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Director, Trip Development
Fox
Chicago, IL, United States
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Description
The Director of Trip Development, manages the Trip Development team. This team is responsible for developing new group Expeditions and Private Expeditions for National Geographic Expeditions.
Responsibilities
• Management: Manage the trip development team. Conduct weekly meetings with staff and ensure that they are on task, producing accurate work, meeting deadlines, and working toward and meeting goals. Approve itineraries, budgets, and pricing recommendations for all proposals. Counsel on difficult work situations. Identify opportunities for improvement, and develop and train on new procedures when needed. Write and deliver performance reviews for direct reports and recommend professional growth opportunities. Advise manager of staff progress and issues. Hire and train new Trip Development staff as needed. Support and enforce National Geographic Expeditions systems, policies, procedures and productivity standards. Manage staff time-off requests to minimize impact on team operation. High functioning team, where team goals are on target.
• Trip Development: Successfully develop itineraries for Series departures (groups and Private Expeditions) on all 7 continents. Secure costs from multiple operators for each program, negotiate rates, create trip budgets, research NGS/NGM databases to identify NG content, write proposals, and detailed itineraries for each program. Make modifications to proposed itineraries as needed. Travel to scout new destinations or inspect new itineraries as needed. For programs that are accepted, secure space, negotiate terms, finalize contracts, provide marketing materials/support to the client as needed, provide sales materials/training to reservations team. High quality programs that are appealing to NG travelers.
• Operator Relationships: Identify new operators for National Geographic Expeditions Trip Development team. Ensure all operators are properly vetted and approved before being used. For approved operators, track insurance information and ensure all information is current and accurate on a monthly basis. Address concerns with any operator that is not meeting National Geographic Expedition's expectations/standards. Travel to conferences and trade events as needed to meet with current and potential suppliers. Strong suite of vetted and preferred suppliers across the world to support programs.
Qualifications
• B.A. degree and 7+ years of related experience and/or training. Background in trip development, event planning, or logistics. Extensive international travel experience, covering 5 or more distinct regions of the world.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Candidates should also have the ability to clearly and effectively correspond with suppliers overseas where English is likely not their first language. Foreign language skills are a plus.
• Proficient in Excel for program budgeting. Demonstrated ability to anticipate problems, find creative solutions to challenging situations and present complicated information in a clear and simple manner.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Office, Excel, PowerPoint and common Internet browsers and applications. A background using QuickBase or other databases or CRM software is a plus.
• The candidate must be highly organized, able to multitask, manage a team, and develop several proposals at the same time, across multiple destinations. Attention to detail is critical. Unwavering accuracy, excellent and systematic organizational skills and flawless attention to detail is necessary. Ability to work independently and as part of a team. The candidate must be willing to lend a hand with any urgent task that may arise. A willingness to be involved in every aspect of the trip development process is important.
Division Description
National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 129 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching over 730 million people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education.
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.