open to question: Chris McIntyre, Sunvil Discovery Africa

open to question: Chris McIntyre, Sunvil Discovery Africa

Job title: managing director, Sunvil Discovery Africa.

Age: 35.

Born: Warrington, Cheshire.

Lives: Richmond.

Status: (recently) single.

Education: St Bede’s College, Manchester, The Queen’s College Oxford (physics).

Path to career: 1987-1990 teaching in Africa with VSO; 1990-1994 ship broker in the city with P&O;1994-96 Sunvil Holidays, general reservations Greece/Cyprus/Africa; 1997 Sunvil Holidays, head of Africa department; 1998- present Sunvil Discovery Africa, managing director.

&#42 What is your star sign?

Virgo.

&#42 What would you change about yourself?

I wouldn’t work as hard.

&#42 Which living person do you most respect and why?

Nelson Mandela. No explanation required.

&#42 What is your greatest regret?

I spent three-and-a-half years as a ship broker – I should have got out sooner.

&#42 If you could be anyone for the day who would you be and why?

Bill Gates, out of sheer curiosity.

&#42 Who, apart from your partner, would be your ideal holiday companion and where would you go?

Sir David Attenborough on a wildlife trip to Zambia.

&#42 What is the most memorable destination you’ve visited and why?

The Bazaruto Archipelago off the coast of Mozambique in the Indian Ocean. For the incredibly pristine coral reefs and the amazing marine life, including menacing sharks.

&#42 What are your hobbies?

Badminton and writing guidebooks and travel-related articles.

&#42 What’s your idea of a great night out?

Having a few beers with friends while watching the sun set over the Zambezi River.

&#42 What would you have put on your gravestone?

He fell in love with Africa at an early age, and was lucky enough to find a job that gave him an excuse to keep going back.

&#42 What was your first job in travel and how much did you get paid?

Greece and Cyprus reservations for Sunvil. I earned £13,000.

&#42 What white lies did you tell on your first job application?

I got on with all my previous bosses.

&#42 What apart from your current position would be your ideal job in travel?

A wildlife guide in the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

&#42 What has been your most embarrassing moment in the travel industry?

Knowing that my colleagues and friends in the business will be reading thiscolumn.

&#42 If you weren’t in travel, what would you be doing?

Travelling to research and write travel books.

&#42 Who has been the biggest influence on your career and why?

Noel Josephides, managing director of Sunvil Holidays, for his relaxed but highly focused way of developing the business and for not being frightened to speak his mind.

&#42 Which company, apart from your own, do you most admire and why?

Tribes Travel because of their focus on the ethical side of tourism development.

&#42 What’s the best job you’ve had, apart from your current one?

Teaching physics in a rural bush school in Zimbabwe.

&#42 What single thing have you achieved at work which has given you the most satisfaction?

Generating a real income through tourism for some of the poorest San/Bushmen communities in remote parts of the Kalahari Desert.

&#42 How many travel agents do you estimate there will be left in the UK in five years’ time?

A handful more good agents and a lot less bad ones.

&#42 Make one prediction about travel in the 21st century:

The environmental and social impact of travel will be of much greater importance to the travelling public.