There’s a quiet shift underway in the travel industry, and no, it’s not another airline schedule change or a new fare war dressed up as innovation.
This one actually matters.
The Australian Travel Career Council, through its Travel Skills Taskforce, has wrapped its fifth and final national forum. On paper, it’s about refining the Certificate III in Travel. In reality, it’s about deciding what kind of people this industry wants sitting across the desk or, more likely, on the other end of a screen five years from now.
And for once, the room agreed.
Less Noise, More Clarity
The travel sector doesn’t always do consensus particularly well. Too many opinions, not enough alignment. But this time, something clicked.
The conclusion? Technical competence is still the ticket to entry, but it won’t carry you far on its own.
Today’s consultant needs to toggle between systems, sift through AI outputs, and still know when to ignore them. Because when things go wrong, and they will, it’s not the algorithm picking up the phone.
ATCC CEO Rick Myatt put it plainly:
“By integrating AI capability and digital vigilance alongside human-centred expertise, we are ensuring the next generation of travel professionals is resilient, adaptable and future-ready.”
It’s not a revolutionary idea. It’s just that the industry has finally decided to act.
Back to Basics With a Twist
The twelve core units remain untouched. Sensibly so. There’s no value in ripping up the foundations just to appear modern.
The real work has happened in the electives.
One technical stream survives Cruise Specialist, and that feels deliberate. Cruise isn’t just holding its ground; it’s quietly thriving. Deep product knowledge still counts here.
Everything else shifts in a different direction.
Emotional intelligence. Problem-solving. High-level customer engagement.
Not exactly headline-grabbing topics, but spend a week in a retail agency or a corporate travel desk, and you’ll understand why they matter. Systems can process bookings. They can’t defuse frustration or read the room.
The Human Advantage
One of the more telling inclusions is the formal push into emotional intelligence training. A decade ago, this would have been dismissed as soft. Today, it’s survival.
Understanding how to deal with anxious travellers, complex needs, or simply someone having a bad day is no longer optional. It’s part of the job.
The framework also leans into inclusivity, specifically around servicing physically impaired and neurodivergent clients. Not as a niche add-on, but as standard practice.
It’s a sign the industry is growing up.
Eyes Wide Open on Technology
There’s no pretending AI isn’t here. It is. It’s embedded, it’s useful, and occasionally, it’s wrong.
Which is why “digital vigilance” might be the most important phrase in this entire exercise.
Cyber awareness, ethical use of tools, and knowing when to trust the system and when to override it are now baked into the training.
Old-school travel agents would recognise the principle instantly: trust your judgement. The tools have changed; the responsibility hasn’t.
What Comes Next
The forums may be done, but the process isn’t.
An executive synthesis on 11 May will pull the threads together, test the structure, and, crucially, ask whether this actually builds a sustainable workforce or just looks good on paper.
If the industry holds its nerve, this could be one of the more practical reforms we’ve seen in years.
No fanfare. No inflated promises.
Just a clearer idea of what “good” looks like in modern travel and a framework that might actually deliver it.
by Anne Keam – (c) 2026.
Read Time: 3 minutes.
About the Author.
Anne Keam’s story begins in Queensland, on a grain farm in the state’s wide western reaches, where the days were long and the lessons simple: work hard, look after your own, and don’t make a fuss. Those early years left their mark.
She later studied Arts at the University of Queensland, before doing what felt natural at the time, heading back home to the family property. But the world was calling. Anne packed a backpack and went looking, spending years on the road and finding herself most alive in South America. She wrote everything down along the way. Those notebooks, full of dust, colour, and curiosity, eventually became her blog, a quiet, personal record of seeing the world and learning from it.
