Retail Travel Consultant

Your Team You will be joining the digital travel retail operation for The Times and The Sunday Times. Launched in 2025, our team enables consumers to plan and book extraordinary holidays across a wide variety of products. We are a dynamic and enthusiastic group, passionate about travel and dedicated to building on our promising foundations to grow this premium service.

Your Role As a Travel Sales Consultant, you will be the driving force behind our luxury travel and tailor-made holiday offerings. You will use your expertise in cruises, touring, and bespoke itineraries to build lasting client relationships and convert enquiries into unforgettable travel experiences. This is a high-energy role where you will manage the end-to-end journey, from initial spark of inspiration to the final pre-travel concierge details.

Day to day You Will

• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients by responding to enquiries via telephone, email, WhatsApp, and live chat.

• Create bespoke holiday proposals tailored specifically to client requirements across cruise, touring, and luxury tailor-made sectors.

• Manage all administrative elements of bookings, including confirmations and invoicing, to ensure a seamless process.

• Liaise directly with hotels, airlines, cruise lines, and tour operators to guarantee accuracy and high-quality travel arrangements.

• Generate enquiries proactively from our existing client base to drive growth.

• Deliver against sales performance targets and key performance indicators.

• Oversee the entire booking lifecycle, managing itinerary creation, invoicing, and any post-sales enquiries or special requests.

• Curate new and exciting holiday itineraries that align with our editorial content to engage and inspire customers.

• Upload itineraries into the CMS for both marketing opportunities and customer quotes.

• Support marketing and business growth through ad hoc projects, such as building specific packages for the website.

What we're looking for from you

• Extensive background in a retail travel sales environment, with a particular focus on cruise and luxury products.

• Proven track record of converting travel enquiries into bookings within a target-driven environment.

• Articulate and confident communication style, with the ability to build rapport over the phone and via written digital channels.

• Exceptional organisational skills with a sharp eye for detail when managing complex travel itineraries and invoices.

• Natural ability to exceed customer expectations, providing a high-touch, "concierge-style" service.

• Creative mindset for designing immersive and imaginative itineraries that stand out in the luxury market.

• Technical agility to quickly learn and adapt to new computer systems and CMS platforms.

• In-depth knowledge of luxury travel destinations, with first-hand experience in regions such as Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, or Asia being highly beneficial.

Working Hours & Holiday:

• Monday – Friday: 9am to 6pm - on a rostered shift pattern.

• Saturday: 10am to 5.00pm - on a rostered shift pattern.

• Flexibility to work weekends and out-of-hours is essential. We will be increasing our opening hours and opening on Sundays in the coming weeks.

• Initially 20 days holiday (+ bank holidays), increasing by 1 day per year worked, up to a maximum of 23 days.

If you think you have what it takes but don’t tick every requirement on the list, please do apply. We recognise that considering someone’s potential as well as their experience is a great way to hire. We want to hear from people who have a passion to learn and develop.

News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.

At News UK, we embrace a hybrid work model, currently requiring a minimum of three days per week in the office. This approach fosters collaboration, innovation, and team spirit within our workspace. Certain roles may necessitate additional in-office days; please discuss this with your recruiter for specific requirements.

Life at News Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information.

We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter most. To ensure these stories resonate with as broad an audience as possible, it is essential that our organisation reflects the diversity of the people we reach. Whether through age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social class or sexuality, we are committed to representing the rich variety of voices that make up our society. And we champion a culture where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive as we continue to innovate and drive long term sustainable growth. This is done through our Diversity Strategy.

At News UK, we take pride in our exceptional employee-led networks that bring together individuals with shared interests and create a vibrant sense of community. We believe our networks play a vital role in fostering a collaborative and supportive work culture at News UK. Groups that we support include the African & Caribbean Network, Parents and Carers, and LGBTQ+ group News Is Out, and the Apprentice Society.

Benefits

Some of our benefits include:

• Private medical insurance including coverage for pre-existing conditions

• Discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass at Home, weekly in person/ virtual exercise classes

• ‘Bikes for Work’ and ‘Electric Car’ scheme

• Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books

• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks

• Access to exclusive events and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times. Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities

• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling

• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%

• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access

We want to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to perform to their best when applying for a role. If you would like to receive any information in a different way or for us to do anything differently to support you to apply for any of our roles please contact us on [email protected] .