Tour Operations Specialist

Santana Adventures; Claremont (CA); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Santana Adventures seeks a Travel Operations Specialist to join our event operations team and help prepare and operate our international cycling cruise experiences. This entry-level role is designed for highly organized individuals who love international travel and want to learn the travel and hospitality industry from the ground up.

You’ll work closely with a Tour Director and Travel Operations & Experience Manager to prepare details and support participants during events, with opportunity for

Qualifications

• This is an entry-level professional position with potential for growth.
• No prior tour-industry experience required; emphasis on ability, attitude, judgment, and work ethic.

Responsibilities

• Before a trip: help prepare events by researching destinations, vendors, and logistics; reconfirm reservations and schedules; organize information and materials.
• During a trip: assist participants, answer questions, accompany groups, manage tickets and meeting times; coordinate with local guides and vendors.
• Assist with travel logistics, signage, and material preparation for upcoming days; support the operations team to ensure a smooth event.

Job description

Full-Time | $80,000–$90,000 | Approximately 6 Months of International Travel

Santana Adventures creates and operates high-end cycling cruises and group travel experiences around the world. Our trips combine exceptional cycling, carefully planned logistics, cultural discovery, and a highly personal style of participant service.

We are looking for a Travel Operations Specialist to join our event operations team and help prepare and operate our international cycling cruise experiences.

This is an entry-level professional position for someone who is highly organized, enjoys helping people, loves international travel, and wants to learn the travel and hospitality industry from the ground up.

You do not need years of tour-industry experience. We are looking for someone with strong potential: intelligent, dependable, personable, detail-oriented, adaptable, and eager to learn. For the right person, this position offers significant responsibility, extensive international travel, and an opportunity to develop into more senior roles within Santana Adventures.

Travel Operations Specialist

Full-Time | $80,000–$90,000 | Approximately 6 Months of International Travel

Santana Adventures creates and operates high-end cycling cruises and group travel experiences around the world. Our trips combine exceptional cycling, carefully planned logistics, cultural discovery, and a highly personal style of participant service.

We are looking for a Travel Operations Specialist to join our event operations team and help prepare and operate our international cycling cruise experiences.

This is an entry-level professional position for someone who is highly organized, enjoys helping people, loves international travel, and wants to learn the travel and hospitality industry from the ground up.

You do not need years of tour-industry experience. We are looking for someone with strong potential: intelligent, dependable, personable, detail-oriented, adaptable, and eager to learn. For the right person, this position offers significant responsibility, extensive international travel, and an opportunity to develop into more senior roles within Santana Adventures.

About the Role

The Travel Operations Specialist has two distinct sides to the job.

Before an event, you will work closely with a Tour Director and Travel Operations & Experience Manager to prepare the hundreds of details required to operate an international group trip. You may research destinations and vendors, verify reservations and schedules, organize information, prepare materials, and help ensure nothing important has been overlooked.

During an event, your role becomes much more participant-facing. You will be one of the people our participants know they can approach when they have a question or need help.

You might accompany a group on a bus or excursion, distribute tickets, coordinate with a local guide, explain meeting points, make sure everyone is accounted for, answer questions about the day’s schedule, or solve a smaller problem before it becomes a larger one.

The role changes from day to day. The common thread is simple: help the operations team get things done and help our participants have a great experience.

Compensation, Location & Travel

Salary:$80,000–$90,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications.

Employment:Full-time, salaried position.

Travel:Approximately six months per year, primarily helping operate Santana Adventures cycling cruise events around the world. Unlike our Tour Directors and Travel Operations & Experience Managers, Specialists generally will not participate in advance scouting trips.

Work Location:During initial training and the probationary period, when not traveling, the position will generally work in person with our team in Claremont, California, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM.

After successfully completing training and demonstrating appropriate independence, the employee may be permitted to work remotely when stateside and not traveling. Periodic work in Claremont will still be required.

Santana Adventures covers approved work-related transportation, lodging, and other approved travel expenses during active events and required company travel. Additional benefits will be discussed during the interview process.

What You’ll Do

Before the Trip

Working with the Tour Director and Travel Operations & Experience Manager, you will help prepare assigned events by:

• Researching destinations, restaurants, attractions, transportation, vendors, and other trip components.
• Contacting vendors for pricing, availability, and logistical details.
• Checking and reconfirming reservations, schedules, tickets, transportation, operating hours, and other important information.
• Researching meeting locations, walking distances, bus access, group capacity, timing, and other practical details.
• Organizing research and operational information for the team.
• Helping prepare schedules, participant materials, staff documents, tickets, signage, and other event materials.
• Reviewing plans for missing information or details requiring additional confirmation.
• Completing other research, coordination, and logistical assignments as needed.

You won’t be expected to make major itinerary or operational decisions. You will be expected to think critically, ask good questions, double-check your work, and speak up when something doesn’t seem right.

During the Trip

Once an event begins, you’ll become one of our primary resources for participant support and day-to-day assistance.

Depending on the day, you may:

• Answer questions about schedules, activities, transportation, meeting points, and other trip details.
• Accompany groups on buses, excursions, tours, or other activities.
• Manage tickets, admissions, participant counts, and meeting times.
• Coordinate with local guides, vendors, transportation providers, and ship personnel.
• Help participants get where they need to be and understand what happens next.
• Occasionally take informal leadership of a smaller group.
• Solve routine participant or logistical problems independently.
• Assist the Manager and Tour Director with time-sensitive operational tasks.
• Prepare materials and confirm arrangements for upcoming days.
• Assist with luggage, bicycles, supplies, signage, check-in, or other practical event needs.

You won’t be expected to know how to handle every situation immediately. As you gain experience and demonstrate good judgment, we’ll expect you to become increasingly comfortable solving smaller problems independently while recognizing when something should be brought to the Manager or Tour Director.

What We’re Looking For

Previous tour-industry experience is not required. We are much more interested in finding someone with the right combination of ability, attitude, judgment, and work ethic.

The ideal candidate is:

• Highly organized and detail-oriented.
• Friendly, approachable, patient, and naturally helpful.
• Dependable and able to follow through.
• Comfortable interacting with lots of different people.
• A clear communicator in person, by phone, and in writing.
• Curious, resourceful, and willing to ask questions.
• Comfortable researching details and making phone calls to find answers.
• Able to work independently while taking direction from experienced team members.
• Observant enough to notice when something—or someone—needs attention.
• Calm and professional when plans change.
• Willing to help with whatever reasonable task is needed to make the event successful.
• Comfortable with long and variable working days during active events.
• Genuinely excited about spending approximately half the year traveling internationally.

Relevant experience might come from hospitality, hotels, restaurants, customer service, events, travel, airlines, logistics, luxury retail, administrative or project support, or other positions requiring organization and frequent interaction with people.

International travel experience and foreign-language skills are valuable but not required.

This Is Not a Cycling Position

Although Santana Adventures operates cycling cruises, the Travel Operations Specialist should not expect to cycle during events.

Your job is to be where the operation and participants need you. While participants are cycling, you may be accompanying an excursion, traveling on a bus, coordinating with a vendor, helping at the ship, preparing for the next part of the day, or handling another operational assignment.

You will not normally serve as a bicycle mechanic or drive an SOS support vehicle.

Santana is a small and hands-on team. Everyone helps when necessary. If bicycles need to be loaded, luggage moved, signs placed, or participants assisted, you should expect to pitch in.

The Reality of Working Travel

Spending approximately six months each year traveling internationally can be an incredible experience, but this is working travel, not vacation travel.

Event days can be long. There may be early mornings, evenings, weekends, changing schedules, lots of time on your feet, and unexpected problems. Candidates should be able to occasionally lift or move luggage, supplies, or bicycles weighing up to approximately 50 pounds and work comfortably in changing weather and travel conditions.

You’ll visit remarkable destinations, but you’ll be there to work. Sometimes that means spending the afternoon at an incredible cultural site with participants. Other times it means checking tickets, finding someone who’s late for a bus, moving supplies, calling a vendor, or solving a problem while everyone else enjoys the destination.

The right person will find both sides of the experience rewarding.

An Opportunity to Build a Career

We view the Travel Operations Specialist position as more than simply an entry-level job.

You’ll work alongside experienced Tour Directors and Travel Operations & Experience Managers and gain firsthand exposure to how complex international events are designed, planned, and operated.

As you demonstrate reliability, initiative, judgment, participant-service skills, and an understanding of Santana Adventures’ operations, you’ll have opportunities to take on greater responsibility.

For employees who demonstrate the ability and want to advance, there is a potential career path from:

Travel Operations Specialist → Travel Operations & Experience Manager → Tour Director

Advancement isn’t automatic or based simply on tenure. It must be earned. But we strongly believe in developing talented people and giving them opportunities to demonstrate what they’re capable of.

About Santana Adventures

Santana Adventures specializes in high-end cycling cruises around the world. Our participants travel with us for exceptional cycling, thoughtfully planned itineraries, cultural discovery, beautiful destinations, and the camaraderie of an experienced and welcoming group.

We’re a small, hands-on team, which means you’ll have the opportunity to learn quickly, contribute meaningfully, and see firsthand how your work affects the success of an event.