Local Partnership Development Specialist - Tourism Network

This role requires the candidate to work in Thailand.

Client Overview

Our client is a rapidly growing travel and tourism company focused on building a trusted network of local tour guides and destination partners to deliver authentic, high-quality travel experiences. Through strategic partnerships with independent guides, tourism communities, universities, and local organizations, the company continues expanding its presence while maintaining exceptional service quality and customer satisfaction.

Operating across multiple destinations, the organization emphasizes strong local partnerships, rigorous partner selection standards, and sustainable growth. The company offers an excellent opportunity for professionals who enjoy networking, business development, and building long-term relationships within the tourism ecosystem.

Job Role

The Partnership Executive – Tour Guide Acquisition will be responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and onboarding qualified local tour guides while building strong relationships with universities, tourism associations, and other industry stakeholders. The role focuses on developing a sustainable pipeline of high-quality guide partners through market research, structured screening, partnership development, and onboarding coordination.

Working closely with the management team, the successful candidate will identify suitable partnership opportunities, assess guide capabilities, negotiate partnership arrangements, and continuously improve sourcing strategies to support business expansion.

Key Responsibilities

• Proactively source qualified tour guides through local directories, tourism associations, social media platforms, guide marketplaces, university tourism programs, tourism offices, referrals, community groups, and other sourcing channels.
• Build and maintain relationships with university tourism departments, faculty members, student organizations, alumni networks, and tourism institutions to strengthen candidate pipelines.
• Conduct comprehensive research on potential guide partners, including their professional background, tour specialties, certifications, language proficiency, customer reviews, online reputation, and overall market credibility.
• Perform structured screening interviews to evaluate communication skills, professionalism, storytelling ability, destination knowledge, customer service orientation, safety awareness, and operational readiness.
• Assess and rank candidates using standardized evaluation criteria while maintaining an organized and prioritized recruitment pipeline.
• Prepare concise candidate profiles, recommendations, strengths, weaknesses, and market suitability analyses for management review and partnership approval.
• Negotiate basic partnership terms and support onboarding activities, including documentation, scheduling, pricing guidance, and operational coordination.
• Continuously explore new sourcing channels, recruitment strategies, networking events, community partnerships, and university collaborations to improve recruitment effectiveness.
• Maintain accurate CRM records, recruitment databases, sourcing activities, and weekly reports covering pipeline health, conversion metrics, and partnership progress.
• Gather operational feedback from newly onboarded guides and customers to continuously improve selection standards, partnership quality, and recruitment processes.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Tourism, Hospitality Management, Business Administration, Human Resources, Marketing, or other related disciplines is preferred.
• Minimum 1–3 years of professional experience in business development, recruitment, partnerships, hospitality, tourism operations, or related fields.
• Strong experience conducting candidate sourcing, outreach, and structured interviews through both online and offline channels.
• Previous experience working with tour operators, destination management companies (DMCs), travel marketplaces, tourism organizations, or university career services is highly preferred.
• Familiarity with local tourism ecosystems, tourism associations, university structures, and tour guide communities is considered an advantage.
• Experience evaluating freelance professionals, contractors, or independent service providers is highly desirable.
• Strong research skills with the ability to verify candidate credentials, certifications, customer reviews, language capabilities, and professional reputation.
• Excellent interpersonal, networking, relationship-building, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong communication, presentation, interviewing, and negotiation capabilities.
• Highly organized with excellent attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple recruitment pipelines simultaneously.
• Proficient in CRM systems, Microsoft Office, and candidate database management.
• Self-driven, proactive, adaptable, and capable of working independently in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment.
• Familiarity with local licensing or certification requirements for tour guides will be considered an advantage.
• Professional proficiency in written and spoken English is required. Additional local language capabilities or multilingual communication skills are highly valued.

Job Code: #747