What were your first experiences in the travel industry?
As part of my degree in business studies, travel and tourism I repped in Majorca for six months in the early 1980s for Harry Goodman at Intasun Holidays. It was the most incredible six months of my life. At just 20, I was the youngest rep in Majorca at the time, and worked for a budget hotel, where people paid £99 for a two-week, full-board holiday.
The way we handled situations was paramount to how guests felt about the company. I had to deal with a murder, a birth and four deaths in one season. One woman gave birth in the hotel bathroom; she hadn’t realised she was pregnant and thought she just had a hangover.
Were you always very ambitious?
I wanted a serious career. You get one chance at life and you have to make the most of it. Both my parents were brought up to seize every opportunity and both of them loved life – my father was in the Warsaw Uprising when he was 15 and my mum came to the UK from Berlin with the Red Cross when she was 12.
I have always taken my work seriously and it is very important to me to do a good job. Being in a customer service industry, customers have always been at the heart of everything I do.
What are your career highlights?
The first highlight for me was when I was at Hertz and was given a team to manage. People underestimate how important it is to give people the tools to manage a team. Hertz was very proactive in management training. It makes such a difference if you feel supported.
Another time that was very important to me was when I worked for dreamticket.com. When I made the transition at the height of the dot-com boom it was a risk, but it was a calculated risk in that I could afford to take it and I had a lot of friends [in travel] at that stage.
Even though we ended up having to fold the business when we were looking at a second round of funding, we paid everyone off, which was important from a credibility point of view. From a learning point of view it was a phenomenal experience.
I also worked on Silverjet with [chief executive] Lawrence Hunt. Against all the odds, he got the aircraft off the ground. I take my hat off to him.
Having had experience of start-ups and big corporates, what’s your preference?
I am comfortable with both. It’s more about the people I work with. It was great to be in a situation where we started off with no offices [dreamticket.com] and we were doing everything because there was nobody to delegate to. Here at Royal Caribbean, we are part of a multi-billion-pound organisation but there is no hierarchy in the way we work and that’s what I enjoy.
What are the challenges at Royal Caribbean?
Since I joined three years ago, year-on-year business has more than doubled. When that happens, there is a mentality switch – we are not a small business anymore. We have to constantly raise our game, even if things are working well. Once you get to a certain size you have to change your mindset otherwise you will not continue to expand the business.
All our marketing to customers and work through the trade is geared towards getting people into the funnel of cruising. Once they are in the funnel we will fight like cat and dog [against rivals]. I really enjoy being the challenger brand. Royal Caribbean International could become number one. There are so few people, relatively, that have cruised – only 3% of overseas holidays are cruises.
With so many new ships planned, will there be a capacity problem in the cruising sector?
The whole industry feels more confident that supply will be greater than demand. More ships are coming in – there are 45 on the order book, going well into 2012 – but we have to remember that less than 2% of the UK population has cruised. In the US it’s 2.7% – it has not hit saturation point there.
Capital investment in new ships totals millions of dollars, which shows the industry’s confidence there will not be an over-capacity issue for the forseeable future.
What are some of the latest trends in cruising?
We are seeing more grandparents, parents and children travelling together, and more family reunions. Social networking websites are vital to us – people are deciding their next holiday through them. We look at Facebook and the other sites and react to feedback – word of mouth is critical for a cruise holiday.
Profile
Age: “None of your business!”
Lives: Just moved to a three-bed end-of-terrace house in Chiswick.
Status: Has a partner, Lynne.
Favourite holiday destination: “I love Majorca and I love skiing.”
Favourite film: The original version of The Italian Job.
Last book read: On Leadership: Practical Wisdom from the People Who Know by Allan Leighton.
