Maxine Dunsdon, group sales executive, Norwegian Cruise Line
Education: 6 O’ levels, Travel and Tourism BTEC.
Training: work experience while on travel and tourism course, and on the job training.
First travel job: working as a travel consultant for Pickfords Travel.
Career path: began as a travel consultant for Pickfords Travel and worked in various branches. When Pickfords changed its name to Going Places, Maxine was promoted to assistant manager, where she managed a branch with six staff. She was lucky enough to travel fairly extensively including Australia and Russia and began to specialise in organising tailor-made itineraries for clients. In 1997 she joined Norwegian Cruise Line in the reservations department and then moved to the retail groups department as group sales executive. Her role now is to arrange bookings for groups of 20 to 120 people. On occasion, this can be quite complex as she arranges everything, even their holiday money. She describes it as a very satisfying job.
Advice for people wishing to develop a career in travel: “Start at the beginning and work your way up, gathering as much travel experience as you can. Enjoy what you do! Never get flustered, be enthusiastic and enjoy communicating with people. Travel is a fantastic business, and you need to have the desire to travel yourself. I love it, and unless I win the lottery, I can’t ever imagine doing anything else!
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