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If you’ve ever harbored dreams of breaking into the travel business but weren’t sure how to find your niche, here’s a tip: invest in a falcon.
We searched the globe for the most offbeat jobs in the travel industry, and strangely enough, falconers and their birds of prey are some of the biggest clutch players of the travel world. A falconer in Santa Barbara, for instance, keeps pesky seagulls from invading the Four Seasons’ pool. Falconers are also working hard in Italy to keep pigeons from freckling monuments with their droppings. And at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, there’s a robotic hawk to scare birds away from planes.
In fact, many offbeat travel-industry jobs involve keeping Mother Nature at bay. Zürich Airport takes its anti-bird agenda to a cutthroat level: the airport employs three hunters who shoot birds that may otherwise fly into, and damage, planes. In India, meanwhile, the “monkey men” at a plush resort spend their days chasing primates prone to stealing guests’ cookies. “We are convinced that the monkeys have ‘tea parties’ on the other side of the resort’s stone wall,” says Rishi Kapoor, an executive with luxury tour operator Abercrombie & Kent, which partners with the Amanbagh Resort.
Happily, not everyone is just chasing critters behind the scenes—and for some people, what started as utilitarian jobs somehow turned into entertainment or guest perks. In St. Thomas, an engineer who helps protect guests from falling coconuts has become an essential part of happy hour. And that falconer at the Santa Barbara Four Seasons is about to become the hotel’s version of Jack Hanna, putting on his own show. “Guests kept coming up to him while he was working and asking questions,” says Gena Downey, the hotel’s spokesperson. “It prompted us to think about having him talk to guests regularly.”
It’s not always about creating a spectacle though: sometimes it’s about the service. In the past few years, other hotels have created quirky positions to enhance the guest experience—say, a “tanning butler” who applies sunscreen to pool-goers, “bath sommeliers” who fill your tub, or “bibliotherapists” who choose your reading material. “Anything that hotels or resorts can do to differentiate themselves, to create a ‘wow factor,’ is essential in today’s very competitive market,” says John Clifford, a travel agent and president of San Diego-based International Travel Management.
Our favorite jobs, though, walk the line between necessity and absurdity—say, being a tour guide for Paris’s sewer system—or are positions that sound fun but aren’t always easy. Take, for instance, what may be the most festive-sounding transit job on the planet: driving a karaoke-equipped taxi in Finland. “Drivers have to have ’long‘ nerves,“ admits Karaoke Taxi cofounder Arla Kulmala, “so that he or she can listen to singing all night long. Drivers also have to be a little bit crazy, in a good way,” she says. “It helps them understand customers better.”
