Local Partnership Development Specialist – Tourism Network

This role requires the candidate to work in Mexico.

Client Overview

Our client is a fast-growing company operating within the travel and tourism industry, focused on building a high-quality network of local tour guides and destination experiences. The organization partners with independent guides, tourism communities, educational institutions, and local tourism stakeholders to deliver authentic, professionally managed travel experiences for both domestic and international travelers.

As part of its continued expansion, the company is strengthening its local partnership network by identifying, evaluating, and onboarding qualified tour guides across multiple destinations. With a strong emphasis on service quality, operational consistency, and long-term partner relationships, the organization seeks professionals who are skilled in sourcing, stakeholder engagement, and partnership development within the tourism ecosystem.

Job Role

The Partnership Acquisition Executive will be responsible for identifying, evaluating, and onboarding qualified local tour guides while building long-term relationships with tourism communities, guide associations, universities, and other industry stakeholders. The role focuses on sourcing high-quality partners, conducting structured assessments, managing candidate pipelines, and supporting partnership negotiations to strengthen the company's local guide network.

Working closely with management, the successful candidate will play a key role in expanding the company's tourism partner ecosystem by researching potential guides, evaluating their capabilities, coordinating onboarding activities, and maintaining strong market intelligence. This position is highly suitable for professionals with experience in business development, recruitment, partnerships, or tourism operations who possess strong communication, interviewing, and relationship-building capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Identify and source qualified tour guides through local directories, social media platforms, tourism communities, referrals, guide marketplaces, universities, and other sourcing channels.
• Build relationships with tourism departments, faculty members, student organizations, guide associations, tourism offices, and other industry stakeholders to develop sustainable sourcing pipelines.
• Conduct detailed research on prospective partners, including background verification, tour products, certifications, language capabilities, customer reviews, and professional reputation.
• Perform structured screening interviews to evaluate candidates' professionalism, destination knowledge, storytelling ability, customer service skills, and operational readiness.
• Assess and rank candidates based on defined evaluation criteria, maintaining an organized pipeline of qualified guide partners.
• Prepare candidate profiles, recommendations, and shortlists for management review while providing clear assessments of strengths, development areas, and market suitability.
• Support partnership negotiations, onboarding activities, contract coordination, scheduling arrangements, and initial operational setup for new guide partners.
• Continuously explore and evaluate new sourcing channels, industry events, alumni networks, community groups, and tourism organizations to expand recruitment effectiveness.
• Maintain accurate CRM records, monitor sourcing performance, conversion metrics, and partnership progress while preparing regular pipeline reports.
• Collect feedback from guide partners and operational activities to improve sourcing strategies, selection criteria, onboarding processes, and partnership performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Hospitality, Tourism Management, Human Resources, Marketing, or other related disciplines is preferred.
• Minimum 1–3 years of experience in business development, recruitment, partnerships, hospitality, tourism operations, or related functions.
• Experience sourcing, screening, interviewing, or onboarding candidates, partners, contractors, or service providers.
• Familiarity with local tourism ecosystems, guide associations, tourism institutions, or university networks is highly preferred.
• Strong interviewing, candidate assessment, relationship-building, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Experience negotiating basic commercial terms and coordinating partnership agreements is advantageous.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple sourcing pipelines simultaneously.
• Experience working with tour operators, destination management companies (DMCs), travel marketplaces, or university career services will be an advantage.
• Experience evaluating multilingual candidates or onboarding freelance professionals is preferred.
• Understanding of local tour guide licensing or certification requirements is considered a plus.
• Strong research, analytical, and candidate evaluation capabilities.
• Professional relationship management skills with the ability to engage educators, tourism organizations, associations, and independent professionals.
• Strong organizational skills with experience maintaining CRM systems, recruitment databases, and reporting metrics.
• Good negotiation skills and the ability to facilitate partnership discussions professionally.
• Self-motivated, proactive, adaptable, and capable of working independently while collaborating effectively with internal stakeholders.
• Good English communication skills are preferred, while additional local language proficiency will be considered an advantage depending on the target market.

Job Code: #749

Originally posted on Himalayas