C&M Travel Recruitment’s 2023 travel salary index reveals average travel salaries went up by 11.6% last year to £34,156 – an increase of 21.1% compared with 2019. However, C&M’s data reveals the disparity between lower and higher-paid roles is growing, with wages rising faster for those at the top.

Wages for executive travel roles – those paying £40,000 and above – increased by 6.5% (£3,364) to an average of £55,085 in 2023, while those in new travel jobs with salaries of £60,000 (or above) saw their wages increase by an average of 11.1% (£8,355) last year.

By contrast, pay for standard travel roles – those paying up to £40,000 – increased by only just over 4% last year to £29,701 (up 19.1% compared with 2019). And for mid-level jobs, those paying between £22,001 and £29,999, pay increased by less than 1% last year and has only gone up by just over 4.5% (£1,155) since 2019. This is below the rate of inflation.

"Salaries in the travel industry have been too low for too long," said C&M managing director Barbara Kolosinska. "And with the headline figure of an 11.6% rise in 2023 following an 11.5% rise in 2022, you could easily think we’re well on our way to fixing this problem and that wages are rising for everyone in travel. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that.

"Those at the very top of our industry are indeed seeing these big increases in pay, but it isn’t filtering down to the lower levels. For many people working in travel – particularly those earning less than £30,000 – salaries barely increased at all last year and have in fact fallen compared with the rate of inflation"

Travel ‘uncompetitive’

Kolosinska continued: "There’s a still a real talent shortage at the moment, and we’re simply not going to attract quality candidates into the travel industry if we continue with these very uncompetitive packages.

"There are some fantastic roles out there with many offering attractive salaries, but if we want to successfully add talented people to our teams, we need to make a real effort in 2024 to collectively increase wages for lower-level travel positions."

New candidates seeking travel roles increased by 8% last year compared with a bumper 26% spike in 2022. And while last year’s total number of new travel jobseekers was the highest since 2018, it still lagged some 15% behind 2017 – a record year.

There was also further evidence of a slowdown in 2023 compared with 2022; vacancies dipped by 30% year-on-year, while placements fell back by half compared with 2022.