The agency we chose to visit is Dodds Sports Tours which organizes trips to sporting events across the country. Though it initially started as a smaller family business Dodds grew but was bought out by a larger company called Premiere Global Sports three years ago. Dodds, located on Neil Street in Champaign, IL provides services to clients such as the University of Illinois, Texas A&M, and Ohio State.
Dodds' university clients call Dodds when they have a large group of fans who would like to attend major college sporting events such as any "final" or "bowl" games. The agency provides many services to customers such as booking flights and hotels as well as providing transportation for guests not only to the main sporting event, but to other scheduled activities Dodds organizations for it's customers. Dodd has a team dedicated to planning well-organized, worry-free trips that customers will enjoy.
According to Executive Vice President, Ken Bruce, a worker at a major sports travel agency must be a quick thinker. Though each of Dodds trips are carefully planned out, life happens. There may be a time when a bus carrying customers gets lost or a miscommunication could happen with a hotel or airline; a worker has to be able to handle these types of situations smoothly and efficiently. Bruce also stresses that a member of a travel agency should not only love travel, but people as well. Travel workers deal with many kinds of people on a daily basis; some could be angry customers, or customers who ask similar questions over again. No matter what, a worker must speak to each person with respect. In the end, the customers must enjoy themselves.
The agency offers positions as full-time program managers during the game season. It also looks for travel agents who can accompany guests on the different trips taken. Dodds hires many temp positions as well; people who assist with arranging flights, hotels, transportation..etc. Having a degree in something similar to Recreation, Sports and Tourism looks good to an agency like Dodds. Though they are not hiring at the moment, Bruce encourages students to apply to the agency in the near future because timing of the application is very important (they are currently expanding the company). Anyone who has experience in other travel or group agencies is also a good applicant for an organization like Dodds.
Recently, Dodds has dealt with the question of how to expand the company by venturing into other forms of travel. Dodds has shifted its heavy focus on sports travel to other businesses. For example, in addition to running athletic tours, Dodds also partners with UI Alumni and student organizations to put together trips both domestic or overseas. Currently, Dodds is still in the process of finding the best way to balance its relationship with its different partners in order to gain maximum profit. Dodds goal is to remain a leading athletic trips provider while also successfully expanding to other areas.
Dodds Sports Tours defines leisure as fun. Ken Bruce stated that any time you're having fun while doing an activity, it can be considered leisure. The company provides benefits to its customers by allowing them to take a couple days off to go to a different city to watch their favorite sports team as well as experiencing different environments and sightseeing in a different city. It’s convenient and easy-to-do, without too much hassle for guests; the company prepares everything for the guests.
We found Dodds Athletic Tours to be a very interesting place. The agency provides group sports travel to retail customers, universities, and corporations. They arrange everything from airfare, hotels, transportation to and from the sporting event, and even host a party for the travel group. The office environment seemed fun and everyone there was very nice and friendly. The offices are filled with sports memorabilia, the majority being college events that the company participated in as a travel agency. It seems a career in the agency would be very rewarding. If you love sports you will be very involved with what is going on in the sports world in order to be prepared for future bookings. As an event programmer you will be able to travel to a lot of major sporting events, watch very coveted sporting championships and travel through the U.S. Unfortunately every job has its downfalls. Sometimes you may have to deal with unhappy customers or deal with spontaneous occurrences such as travel delays due to bad whether. Overall an event programmer working for a sports travel agency has an exciting career with lots of challenges making work more enjoyable and rewarding.
