How long have you been in the business? 32 years – I branched out to be a home agent in 1999, when technology was just on the cusp. I’ve been a home agent ever since.
What was your first job? Switchboard operator at Holt Renfrew. Their youngest!
Tell me about your first airplane ride. I was 15 and my mum had saved up enough to go to Disneyworld.
How has the business changed since you got into it? Oh! You know. Reservec. Wardair. People Express. Getting dressed up to fly! And the amount of time sitting on hold for a supplier – I remember waiting for four hours and then being cut off!
Do you have a specialty? Humanitarian travel (NGOs and so on), plus cruising. I was Godmother to the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas and I do Godmother-escorted cruises.
What was your best FAM? Aruba, I was relatively new to the business and very stressed just before my wedding. I remember sitting on a lawn chair in the ocean and just melting.
What drives you crazy? Inefficiency and incompetency.
What was your biggest individual sale? I’m working on it right now! About $65,000 for a family of five to South America. They’re flying business class and going over the Christmas holidays and they want everything plus-plus-plus.
Do you have a magic sentence to close the sale? “Will you be paying by cheque or credit card?”
Do you have any time management strategies? (Laughs long and loud.) I need them! I do write everything down and I’m actually switching from an electronic to a paper daytimer – I work better with paper with daily to-do lists including time blocked to work, phone, email and book appointments with clients.
How do you cope with jet lag? Drugs? (laughs) I sleep when I can, even on a plane.
What’s the best piece of advice you ever received? “If you are in this business for the money, get out now!” Spoken during my first day at Travel and Tourism College.
If you had to spend six months in a destination, which one would you pick? Mali, in West Africa. We have built a bush hospital for our charity, Hands across the Nation, there (www.hatn.org).
If you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing? I’d open up a card store. I don’t know how realistic that would be! But honestly I can’t see myself doing anything outside the travel business – ever since I was 16 and I walked into a dumpy agency in Greektown and thought, “This is the business for me.”
If you’d like to be featured in Up Front, please email martha@gk.openjaw.xyz
