| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 29/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 16 |
| Copyright: Other |
open to question: Daragh O’Reilly, Irish Ferries
profileJob title: passenger manager (UK).
Path to career: joined Abbey Travel as salesexecutive in 1991. Left to join WCTInternational as sales andmarketing executive in 1992. JoinedEuropcar in 1995 as sales and marketing manager. Left to join Irish Ferries as sales manager in 1999 and was promoted to passenger manager (UK) earlier this year.
industry talk
n What was your first job in travel and how much did you get paid?
As a sales executive with a hotel marketing company. Paid? More like food and water (about £115 a week)!
n What has been your biggest challenge in the travel industry?
Taking over responsibility for the UKmarket with Irish Ferries. But the future is bright.
n What’s the best job you’ve had, apart from your current one?
Working for an inbound handling agent in deepest southwest Ireland during some very hot summers.
n Which company, apart from your own, do you most admire and why?
Holiday Autos – what a professional and progressive outfit.
n If you weren’t in travel, what would you be doing?
I don’t honestly know but I know I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.
n What single thing have you achieved at work which has given you the most satisfaction?
Joining Irish Ferries and then progressing so quickly.
n What advice would you give to someone starting out in the travel industry?
Get in on the ground level and get your hands dirty.
n What percentage of holiday bookings do you estimate will be taken direct in five years’ time?
About 65% – give or take a bit.
n Do you think the growing consolidation in the travel indusry is good for consumers?
If customers are aware of the links then they should be able to choose the right option.
n How many travel agents do you estimate there will be left in the UK in five years’ time?
Every customer-focused agent should still be around then.
n Make one prediction about travel in the 21st century:
I think that in the future, travel agents will have much less to do with the generic point-to-point travel arrangements.
personal talk
n What is your star sign?
Libra.
n Which living person do you most respect and why?
John Hume – a man of vision for the future of Ireland.
n What is your greatest extravagance?
Travel (funny that!) – international travel and to the west coast of Ireland.
n If you could be anyone for the day who would you be and why?
Eddie Irvine, surely I don’t have to explain.
n Who, apart from your partner, would be your ideal holiday companion and where would you go?
Me and Audrey Hepburn, diving on the Graveyard Coral in Grand Cayman, or rafting at Victoria Falls, or skiing in Banff.
n What are your hobbies?
Travel, work, sleep, drink and women.
n What is the most memorable destination you’ve visited and why?
Argentina. Ever seen a glacier sheer right in front of you?
n What type of holiday would you avoid at all costs?
Package – you know the ‘prickly heat’ type.
n What is your favourite TV programme/film/book?
Ienjoy The Simpsons (all seven series), the film is The Fortune Cookie, with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon and the book is The Executioners Song by Norman Mailer.
n What would you have put on your gravestone?
Carpe Diem – and he did.