Travel Industry Recruitment Opportunities, set up by former Hurtigruten sales manager Danny Giles, marked its first anniversary this week.

The group now has around 1,700 members on Facebook, and was created after Giles noticed a gap in the market for a dedicated travel recruitment page. "It surprised me that nobody else had ever really done something like this before," Giles told TTG.

"It was an idea I had just before Christmas [2020]. I was looking, and am still looking, for a role back in the travel industry, and I was getting tired every morning of having to check every recruitment agency and every job board.

"The likes of the Indeeds and the Monsters, they don’t really have a massive travel industry section, and you end up getting lost in it." 

After struggling to source a portal dedicated solely to travel jobs, Giles came up with the idea of a "one-stop-shop" for industry colleagues who found themselves in a similar position.

"I came up with the name and did a bit of marketing and then launched it, initially just to the people I knew within the industry through my Facebook contacts, and then shared it further," Giles explained.

"Within a month, it shot up to 600 members and has continued to grow right through to just shy of 1,700. It’s a real community."

Giles then approached a selection of recruitment agencies to inform them of the new pool of eager candidates looking for travel roles. "Before I knew it, everyone wanted to be in on it," he said.

In March 2021, as a by-product of the group, Giles launched the TIRO podcast, and has since produced 26 episodes covering topics ranging from interview tips to the state of the industry.

"In an ideal world, I hope for it not to exist [in a year’s time] because I don’t want to see that amount of people still out of work," said Giles.

"It’s really grown, it’s kept me engaged, it’s kept me busy, and I know from the comments and the feedback it has worked and it’s put people back into the workplace.

"The view initially was that if it helped one person, it was a success. And over the months it’s helped much more than one.

"Anything in there, whether it be just a little bit of information, or hope even, where people can see that there’s more jobs coming, that’s what it’s all about.

"Everybody that has found a role as a result of the group, or found something through a post, they’re the real stars. I just offered the platform."