How long have you been in the business? I’ve been an agent for eight years now – I did a travel and tourism course right out of high school.
How has the business changed since you got into it? Of course it’s constantly changing – but I’d have to say the demise of paper tickets was a big one.
Do you have a specialty? I do a lot of sun groups – Mexico and Jamaica are popular with the students, and of course study abroad trips, as well as faculty trips.
If you could have any job in the business what would it be? Probably own my own airline. Free pillow, free food and free drinks!
What was your best FAM? Thailand, definitely - the people, the food, the yummy curries.
What drives you crazy? Every agent can relate to someone who sits with you for an hour and goes home to book on line to save a couple of bucks.
If you could have a secret weapon what would be it be? I’d love to be able to read people’s minds - you would always offer them the perfect product at their price.
How do you keep up on industry affairs? I read online versions of the trades and check out Open Jaw daily. Ivanna’s great.
What was your biggest individual sale? I booked three couples to Tahiti and they did a private island experience for 15 days - it was about a $50,000 sale.
Do you have a magic sentence to close the sale? I always ask “Would you like to go ahead with what we researched for you today?”
Do you have any time management strategies? I’m a list girl – lots of to-do lists in my personal and professional life. Old school style, paper and pen.
What do you do to keep your clients loyal? I let them know I care, I always follow up and when I travel I send a Travel Cuts postcard from where I’m at.
If you had to spend six months in a destination, which one would you pick? That’s hard! I just read and watched Eat Pray Love and think I’d have to go to Italy. Drink the wine, eat the food, admire the awesome architecture.
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? Definitely travelling – Merit Leisure Group has a program called SWAP working holidays which lets us take working holidays. We have 12 countries to pick from and I’d probably start with New Zealand.
