| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 26/06/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 63 |
| Copyright: Other |
This week: Valerie Haydon, Silk Road Travellers Club
Age: 42
I GOT my first taste of travel when I was six-years old. I was travelling to Dublin with my parents and the flight attendant took me up to the cockpit to meet the captain. From that moment on I was hooked – on travel that is.By the age of 15 I had sent out enough letters to airlines to wallpaper a room, only to be told I was too young to work for them until I was 21.
Having been thwarted in my attempts to get into the airline industry, I decided that the hotel industry would be another way for me to be involved in this exciting world. So after school I undertook a two-year traineeship in the hotel industry, with my first job being with the entertainer Danny La Rue, at his Streatley-on-Thames hotel. Danny was an utterly charming and glamourous man, whose encouragement I will never forget. I went on to work on the pre-opening team of the Selfridge Hotel, London and finally my family’s hotel in the Channel Islands where I graduated with an Associate Diploma in Hotel Management.
Looking back, my hotel training was a brilliant foundation for my career. I was trained by some of the industry’s best and had the benefit of formal study and hands-on experience in a variety of hotels from boutique style to five star.
During my traineeship and many times since I have done everything from making beds, to waiting at tables, washing dishes, pouring pints and balancing the books. Everything I learned I have used at some time in my career. There is nothing that will gain you more respect as a manager than the ability and preparedness to roll up your sleeves and work alongside your staff, when the going gets tough.
Having reached 21 years and got some customer service under my belt, I was at last eligible to join the airline industry. I started as cabin crew for British Island Airways (now Air UK) and two years later hit the big time working for British Caledonian Airways on their international routes. I travelled the world, received the very best training and what’s more got paid for it. I was in seventh heaven.
During my time with British Caledonian Airways I undertook a business studies degree, which I completed when I emigrated to Australia. I then rejoined British Caledonian as sales and promotions manager Australasia and Pacific until their merger with BA.
Once the merger had gone ahead I took a payout and opened my own adventure travel company in north Queensland, based on Magnetic Island. After three years a huge recession in Australia forced me to hang up my trekking boots and return to the corporate world to make a living back in the hotel industry.
Over the next six years I worked as sales and marketing director/deputy general manager on three five-star fully integrated golf resort openings, one in the Whitsunday Islands, the next in the Hunter Valley wine region of Australia and most recently on the Caribbean island of Antigua. During this time I was working with the UK and European market and realised how much I missed being close to Europe.
On the conclusion of my Caribbean contract I returned to my home town of Henley-on-Thames and was offered the position of managing director of Silk Road Travellers Club. This specialist tour operator and event organiser for countries along the Silk Road just happened to be situated right on my doorstep.
With my background in hotels, airlines and adventure travel the job could not be more ideal for me and, having spent the majority of my working life in the travel industry, it is refreshing to find a new destination and one with such potential as this area, until recently hidden from western eyes.
The set up and the growth of Silk Road Travellers Club is very exciting and rewarding and it gives a tremendous sense of achievement to oversee such an operation and see it on the stairway to success.
And to think all this might not have happened if that airline captain hadn’t invited a little girl up into the cockpit all those years ago!
CURRICULUM VITAE
1976: hotel management trainee; Swan Hotel Streatley; Selfridge Hotel, London; Le Camblez, Guernsey. Gained an Associate Diploma in Hotel Management.
MY TOP TIPS
l Never lose sight of the big picture. Don’t over obsess about individual facets that will delay the whole project – if you get stuck on something ask yourself ‘does it really matter’?
* Preparation is everything – think ahead.
* At the end of each day reward your team (and yourself) for everything you have achieved, rather than whipping yourself for that which you haven’t.