Travel Architect
Department: Your Africa
Location: Bryanston, Johannesburg (Option to work remote)
Description
Senior, Client‑Facing, Itinerary Design & Ownership Role
Role Purpose
The Travel Architect is responsible for owning the client relationship end‑to‑end, from lead qualification and itinerary curation to proposal delivery, booking oversight, crisis handling, and post‑travel retention.
This role requires a high degree of product knowledge, strategic design capability, commercial accuracy, and exceptional written and spoken communication skills.
The Travel Architect crafts high‑touch, luxury inbound journeys for the USA, UK, Europe, and Australian B2C markets, ensuring “Unreasonable Hospitality” is delivered throughout.
Our foundations are built on 4 core values:
Authenticity
staying true to Africa’s stories, cultures, and landscapes, offering real connections that inspire and resonate.
Distinctiveness
delivering extraordinary experiences that leave lasting impressions: memories to relive and stories to tell.
Connection
building trust through deep connections with travelers, local communities and the environment.
Human
infusing a human touch into every stage of the travel process, ensuring empathy, care and personalization.
Responsibilities
- Lead Intake & Qualification
- Receive and acknowledge new leads assigned via CRM (HubSpot).
- Conduct discovery through email, phone or video: purpose, budget, dates,
preferences, personality. - Perform visa/restriction checks.
- Build instant rapport and position Yourself/Your Africa as the expert.
- Research & Itinerary Design
- Design all itinerary concepts including destinations, routing, pacing, experiences.
- Research all flights, hotels, tours, transfers, and relevant logistics.
- Obtain supplier quotes, evaluate promotions, and ensure availability.
- Draft initial itinerary and refine based on client feedback.
- Proposal Development
- Build polished, accurate proposals (PDF, System or CRM‑generated).
- Create pricing breakdowns and comparison options (good/better/best).
- Present proposals to clients (email, phone, or virtual meeting).
- Ensure pricing accuracy through error checks.
Responsibilities (continue)
- Booking & Supplier Coordination
- Quality‑check all supplier bookings.
- Issue invoices and process payments.
- Manage FOREX considerations and apply ROE adjustments.
- Oversee release dates and ensure financial accuracy.
- Documentation & Pre‑Travel Processing
- Conduct visa, passport, insurance, and compliance checks.
- Approve all documents assembled by the Support Team.
- Ensure final travel pack is complete, accurate, and branded to standard.
- During‑Travel Support
- Prepare detailed client bio for on‑ground suppliers.
- Serve as first‑line support for all complex issues.
- Handle disruptions, emergencies, and supplier escalations.
- Identify/Look for opportunities for Unreasonable Hospitality moments.
- Post‑Travel Client Retention
- Send follow‑up messages, gifts, postcards.
- Call clients personally.
- Capture all feedback into CRM.
- Encourage reviews/referrals and update client preferences for future trips.
Competency
- Luxury itinerary design expertise (Southern & East Africa).
- Strong written and spoken communication.
- High attention to detail & pricing accuracy.
- Problem‑solving under pressure.
- CRM fluency (HubSpot preferred).
- Client‑centred mindset with warm, polished tone.
- Commercial awareness (margins, FOREX, supplier terms).
- Ability to own full sales cycle and convert efficiently.
Qualifications and Expertise
- 5+ years inbound travel consulting for luxury FIT markets.
- Proven experience with multi‑country Africa itineraries.
- GDS experience advantageous.
- Tourplan knowledge advantageous.
Salary
The salary for this position is competitive and dependent on relevant experience.
Disclaimer: only candidates with the minimum requirements will be considered. Whilst we do our best to reply to each application, non-compliance with the above requirements may be the cause for our non-response.