Level 2 Certificate in Travel and Tourism
Develop practical knowledge of travel operations, destinations and traveller care.
Who is this programme for?
New entrants and early-career travel and tourism professionals.
How you will learn
Choose independent online learning or registration through an Approved Training Provider (ATP). Both routes cover the same outcomes: 80% structured learning through the materials or classroom teaching, with 20% additional self-study, practical work and assessment. The examination is included within TQT.
Total Qualification Time; unsupervised online study is not described as Guided Learning Hours. Level labels do not imply external framework recognition.
Programme curriculum
Total Qualification Time (TQT): 80% structured learning through classroom teaching or the online materials; 20% additional self-study, independent practical work and assessment. The final examination is included once within the 20%, not added to the published total.
1. Travel and tourism industry structure · 16 hours
Structured: 12.8h · Independent work and assessment: 3.2h
Assessment map: 3 mock questions and 12 final knowledge questions for this unit.
Learning outcomes
- U1.1 · Explain the roles of suppliers, intermediaries and destination organisations.
- U1.2 · Trace the customer journey and identify ownership of services and handovers.
Content and scope
Who sells, delivers and decides
Identify transport, accommodation, attraction and local-service suppliers; retail and online intermediaries; organisers; and destination bodies. Distinguish commercial identity from the role played in a particular transaction. Map who receives the request, who can confirm delivery and who can authorise a change. Explain why a familiar logo, payment receipt or destination recommendation does not prove another organisation has accepted a service.
Visitor needs and forms of tourism
Classify domestic, inbound and outbound travel from a stated residence and destination perspective. Distinguish overnight and same-day visits, purpose and individual priorities. Use these categories to frame research rather than stereotype a customer. Build an enquiry that separates essential constraints, preferences and missing information, with practical international examples and clear limits to what classification can tell a consultant.
The service chain and its dependencies
Trace a trip from discovery through quotation, approval, booking, preparation, delivery, support and closure. Connect each customer promise to a provider action and evidence. Identify dependencies between arrival, pickup, hotel check-in and timed activities. Demonstrate how a change can leave individually plausible records inconsistent, and assign responsibility for checking both individual services and their connections.
Statuses, ownership and acceptance
Use specific labels for enquiry, quoted, held, requested, confirmed, changed, cancelled and completed. Attach source, time, owner and next action to each status. Practise closed-loop handovers in which the receiving colleague accepts the task and can locate the evidence. Differentiate a message being sent, being received and the requested work actually being completed.
Service measures and professional boundaries
Use simple counts and proportions to identify unanswered requests, ageing work and repeated handover errors. Interpret the denominator before comparing periods. Recognise the limits of a beginner consultant’s authority and distinguish information, a recommendation and an operational commitment. Prepare customer updates that are useful without promising unverified delivery or disclosing unnecessary personal information.
Apply your learning
Independently design a service-control pack for a fictional three-night Cape Town cultural visit sold by an agent to two residents of another country. Include a flight, transfer, accommodation and guided experience. Introduce one delayed arrival and one unanswered supplier request. This is additional practice, not a real reservation or a separate formal examination.
- An annotated supplier and intermediary map with decision owners.
- A staged customer journey and two closed-loop handovers.
- A small five-file audit table with a defined confirmation measure and action list.
Mapped materials
- Map the industry around a traveller
- Recognise purpose, visitor type and seasonal needs
- Follow the complete customer journey
- Unit 1 workshop and knowledge check
- Deep study · Who owns each part of a traveller’s journey?
- Case laboratory · Who owns each part of a traveller’s journey?
- Unit 1 learning map
- Build a service map for an international trip
- Turn visitor categories into a useful needs brief
- Control handovers across the customer journey
- Audit a service chain with simple measures
- Unit 1 independent evidence brief
Learning materials require the relevant programme enrolment.
2. Destination knowledge and itinerary planning · 16 hours
Structured: 12.8h · Independent work and assessment: 3.2h
Assessment map: 3 mock questions and 12 final knowledge questions for this unit.
Learning outcomes
- U2.1 · Research destination features using traceable sources.
- U2.2 · Construct a realistic itinerary with timings, costs and alternatives.
Content and scope
Research questions and source authority
Translate a traveller brief into questions about location, opening, admission, transport, access and timing. Choose the organisation responsible for each fact. Distinguish supplier operations, public-authority information, destination interpretation and personal reviews. Keep a dated evidence log that identifies the travel period, source limitations and unresolved conflicts rather than copying attractive claims into an itinerary.
Geography, seasons and visitor fit
Use maps to understand arrival points, neighbourhoods, activity clusters and connections. Explain how season, local events, service frequency and climate patterns can affect a visit without promising particular weather. Relate features to the traveller’s purpose and pace. Separate geographic knowledge from current operational checks and identify when a quiet-season advantage may come with reduced availability.
Timing and dependencies
Construct a sequence using local dates and times, fixed commitments, activity durations, transfers, reporting allowances, meals and rest. Work backwards from a departure as well as forwards from arrival. Detect overlapping activities and unrealistic transfers. Explain why a map distance, published attraction closing time or theoretical connection cannot replace the applicable provider’s actual instructions.
Transparent trip costs
Read prices by person, room, night, party and journey. Calculate quantities and subtotals in one stated currency, distinguish confirmed quotes from estimates and separate optional extras from required components. Test the effect of changing travellers or nights. Reconcile the cost sheet with the itinerary so that an affordable total does not conceal a missing transfer or extra night.
Alternatives and usable presentation
Compare credible options against essential needs before scoring preferences. Prepare a contingency with a specific trigger, suitable timing and a decision owner. Present clear meeting places, dates, inclusions, exclusions, assistance arrangements and unresolved checks. Practise revising the plan when one component changes and explain the trade-off to the customer rather than simply adding more activities.
Apply your learning
Create an independently researched two-day itinerary for a fictional pair visiting a city outside your home country. Set a clear budget and one access-related request without inventing a medical condition. Research the operational facts, cost the plan in one currency and introduce a closure that requires a realistic alternative.
- Dated source log with at least eight decision-relevant facts.
- Timed itinerary and full cost sheet with quantity and price units.
- Comparison of two feasible options and a triggered contingency.
- A concise traveller-ready document and revision note.
Mapped materials
- Build a destination evidence sheet
- Sequence a day that can actually work
- Present the itinerary and total cost
- Unit 2 workshop and knowledge check
- Deep study · A realistic international city itinerary
- Case laboratory · A realistic international city itinerary
- Unit 2 learning map
- Build an evidence-led destination profile
- Build and stress-test a timed day
- Cost the complete visit without hidden assumptions
- Compare options and issue a traveller-ready plan
- Unit 2 independent evidence brief
Learning materials require the relevant programme enrolment.
3. Travel documentation and booking processes · 16 hours
Structured: 12.8h · Independent work and assessment: 3.2h
Assessment map: 3 mock questions and 12 final knowledge questions for this unit.
Learning outcomes
- U3.1 · Use a controlled booking sequence and reconcile records.
- U3.2 · Identify travel-document checks and information requiring current verification.
Content and scope
Authorised booking sequence
Follow enquiry, clarification, quotation, customer approval, supplier request, response checking and final communication as separate stages. Establish the information and authority needed at each stage. Distinguish reservation, payment and fulfilment. Use fictional records to identify premature promises, duplicate requests and unapproved changes while keeping a clear audit trail of who instructed, acted and checked.
Names, dates and component reconciliation
Compare customer-approved details with returned supplier records, including spelling, route, arrival and departure dates, nights, party size, room or service type and inclusions. Cross-check linked components rather than inspecting each in isolation. Record discrepancies, correction requests and matching closure evidence. Do not silently edit a customer voucher and assume the supplier’s operating record has changed.
Travel-document verification
Build a document-check brief using relevant nationality, document type, residence, purpose, dates and the complete route including transits. Consult responsible authorities and appropriate current industry information. Record applicability, source and check date, and escalate unresolved questions. Avoid universal validity rules or guarantees of boarding and entry; repeat the check after a material itinerary or document change.
Data handling and safe communication
Use only information needed for the task and approved channels for personal details. Keep sensitive documents and payment information out of casual messages and training exercises. Distinguish operational contacts from marketing preferences. Design a record that helps authorised colleagues act while limiting unnecessary disclosure, and practise communicating a pending check without exposing private information.
Amendments, departure packs and closure
Treat a requested change as a new controlled decision: assess dependencies and conditions, explain the proposed effect, obtain authority, process and verify. Assemble a departure pack that agrees with current records. Track outstanding credits, corrections and support actions after travel. Demonstrate why a successful system response, a payment or the end of the journey does not automatically close every task.
Apply your learning
Build a fictional three-component booking file for a journey between two continents. Include an approved brief, a quotation, mismatched supplier responses and a later date change. Create a document-check process without asserting any live entry rule. Use fictional identity and payment data throughout.
- Booking-control sheet and customer approval record.
- Four-item exception log and a corrected departure-pack extract.
- Document-check brief with applicable source and recheck triggers.
- Amendment quotation and financial reconciliation.
Mapped materials
- Move from enquiry to controlled booking
- Check documents against the whole journey
- Reconcile the departure pack and handle corrections
- Unit 3 workshop and knowledge check
- Deep study · Checking a booking record without guessing travel requirements
- Case laboratory · Checking a booking record without guessing travel requirements
- Unit 3 learning map
- Separate approval, reservation and fulfilment
- Audit confirmations and assemble a coherent pack
- Make a complete document-check brief
- Process a change and reconcile the final record
- Unit 3 independent evidence brief
Learning materials require the relevant programme enrolment.
4. Serving the travel customer · 16 hours
Structured: 12.8h · Independent work and assessment: 3.2h
Assessment map: 3 mock questions and 12 final knowledge questions for this unit.
Learning outcomes
- U4.1 · Discover needs and communicate clear, inclusive recommendations.
- U4.2 · Handle routine complaints with accurate handovers and follow-up.
Content and scope
Listening and accurate enquiry records
Use open questions to discover purpose and preferences, focused questions to clarify facts and a concise read-back to confirm understanding. Distinguish what a traveller states from what a consultant assumes. Record essentials, preferences and unresolved questions without unnecessary personal detail. Adapt the pace and communication channel while retaining an accurate, actionable service brief.
Clear and inclusive recommendations
Explain options through complete cost, timing, practical features and relevant conditions. Use plain language and meaningful structure, avoiding jargon that prevents informed choice. Ask what assistance or format the customer prefers rather than making assumptions from age, appearance or disability. Verify specific features and describe their limits instead of relying on broad labels such as accessible or suitable for everyone.
Communication across the service chain
Translate customer needs into precise supplier questions and record the returned answer accurately. Keep requests separate from guarantees. Confirm the customer’s understanding of the proposed arrangement and maintain a usable support route. Practise messages for mobile reading, telephone handovers and situations where the traveller needs more time, a different format or clarification.
Routine complaints and service recovery
Listen to the problem, establish the current impact and desired outcome, and separate facts from assumptions. Take proportionate immediate action within authority, investigate relevant records and explain the next step. Do not promise compensation or legal outcomes without evidence and authority. Maintain ownership through supplier referral and record agreed actions, deadlines and customer communication.
Follow-up and service learning
Distinguish acknowledgement, proposed remedy, completed action and customer confirmation. Check whether the practical problem was resolved and whether linked services or money remain outstanding. Write objective complaint notes and identify a preventable process cause. Use feedback evidence to improve instructions or handovers without blaming a colleague or supplier before the records support that conclusion.
Apply your learning
Build a service-care portfolio for a fictional traveller whose confirmed needs were not fully reflected in a supplier response. Script an enquiry, compare options, handle the complaint and prepare a factual closure note.
- Needs brief and inclusive recommendation in two formats.
- Complaint chronology with facts, unknowns and authority limits.
- Recovery record and customer outcome message.
- An anonymised improvement proposal.
Mapped materials
- Listen and turn an enquiry into a brief
- Make information usable for different customers
- Recover service without unsupported promises
- Unit 4 workshop and knowledge check
- Deep study · Turning a vague enquiry into a useful customer brief
- Case laboratory · Turning a vague enquiry into a useful customer brief
- Unit 4 learning map
- Listen, clarify and read back the brief
- Make recommendations understandable and usable
- Recover a routine service problem within authority
- Close the loop and learn from complaint evidence
- Unit 4 independent evidence brief
Learning materials require the relevant programme enrolment.
5. Responsible tourism and professional practice · 16 hours
Structured: 12.8h · Independent work and assessment: 3.2h
Assessment map: 3 mock questions and 12 final knowledge questions for this unit.
Learning outcomes
- U5.1 · Explain environmental and community impacts of a trip.
- U5.2 · Recommend practical responsible actions and professional record keeping.
Content and scope
Environmental effects and honest comparisons
Identify transport, energy, water, waste and habitat pressures associated with an itinerary. Distinguish absolute use from use per visitor or guest-night and state the comparison boundary. Avoid unsupported green claims or invented emission factors. Use fictional data to compare options, identify missing evidence and recommend a practical action whose effect can be checked.
Community benefits and local impacts
Trace how visitor spending may reach local workers, suppliers and organisations while recognising costs such as congestion, noise and pressure on shared facilities. Distinguish a business location from evidence of local purchasing or benefit. Ask who gains, who bears an impact and whose voice is missing when judging a proposed visitor experience.
Culture, heritage and respectful behaviour
Prepare visitor guidance using current site or community instructions about access, photography, dress, movement and interpretation where relevant. Avoid stereotypes and treating a community as an attraction without agency. Recognise the limits of a consultant’s knowledge, use appropriate local expertise and explain the reason for respectful actions rather than issuing unexplained rules.
Practical responsible choices
Compare realistic transport, accommodation, activity and purchasing options against traveller needs and available evidence. Consider trade-offs rather than assuming the cheapest, nearest or greenest-labelled product is automatically best. Build specific actions into the itinerary, assign responsibility and define a simple measure or observation that can indicate whether the intended improvement occurred.
Professional records and continuous improvement
Maintain dated factual records of claims, supplier checks, customer decisions and unresolved actions. Handle information proportionately and communicate limitations honestly. Distinguish an internal improvement proposal from independent certification or legal compliance. Review feedback and operating evidence to update recommendations while preserving a traceable explanation of why an earlier choice was made.
Apply your learning
Audit responsible-travel claims in a fictional three-day proposal. Map benefits and pressures, compare practical alternatives and rewrite unsupported claims. Research two relevant primary sources and separate current facts from fictional data.
- Impact map covering resources, community and visitor experience.
- Comparison with boundaries and limitations.
- Revised proposal with three practical actions.
- Evidence log and improvement plan.
Mapped materials
- Recognise the effects of a visitor experience
- Respect culture, place and people
- Make professional practice visible
- Unit 5 workshop and knowledge check
- Deep study · Responsible choices in a simple visitor product
- Case laboratory · Responsible choices in a simple visitor product
- Unit 5 learning map
- Trace the impacts of one visitor day
- Consider residents, livelihoods and cultural respect
- Build practical responsible choices into a proposal
- Keep professional records and improve the next trip
- Unit 5 independent evidence brief
Learning materials require the relevant programme enrolment.
These are planned learning allocations, not page-reading estimates or a claim of Guided Learning Hours for unsupervised online study. Reading progress alone is not evidence of competence. Keep a learning log with dates, minutes, activity outputs, feedback and revisions. Break long sessions into manageable study periods; breaks are not counted.
Download the syllabus for the full content and learning outcomes.
Put your learning into practice.
Multiple-choice examination: 60 questions, 120 minutes.
Confirm the final criteria, submission dates and assessment arrangements with WTTA or your training provider.