C&M's 2025 Travel Salary Index, which was issued on Tuesday (27 January), reveals salaries for average travel jobs increased by 1.78% (£659) in 2025 to a new high of £37,695 – a fourth successive year of wage increases.
However, this compares with year-on-year growth of 8.43% in 2024 (£2,880), 11.56% in 2023 (£3,539) and 11.53% in 2022 (£3,166). Nonetheless, averages wages for new jobs in the travel industry have gone up by 37.22% (£10,244) since 2021 and have grown every year since 2014, with the exception of 2021.
Last year's increase was also skewed in favour of those industry professionals already earning higher-end salaries. People in senior travel roles – those paying upwards of £40,000 – saw their pay increase by 8.23% on average last year to £56,554, with C&M noting "a particular jump in the number of positions paying £80,000 or more".
By contrast, salaries for standard travel roles – those paying up to £39,999 – stalled for the first time since 2021, falling by 1.84%, although average pay for these roles (£30,527) is still up by more than a quarter (25.73%, or £6,247) since 2021.
In recruitment, the number of people being placed in roles fell by 3% last year, while new candidates dropped by 7% year-on-year and new vacancies by 13%.
Barbara Kolosinska, C&M managing director and co-owner, said: "2025 was a mixed year for travel recruitment but there were lots of extremely positive areas to be encouraged by. Excluding the Covid era, travel salaries have now risen every year for more than a decade – and with wages having jumped by more than a third in just the past four years, travel is now in a much better place to attract the best candidates into our industry."
Kolosinska added: "Less positive were the small falls in overall vacancy, candidate and placement volumes last year, but with many companies reporting a strong peaks season, we're expecting a busy start to 2026 and we're hopeful that this momentum will continue throughout the year."
