Industry talk
n What was your first job in travel and how much did you get paid?
Club 18-30 rep in Lido de Jesolo. I earned £45 per month.
n What white lies did you tell on your first job application?
I said I took over the DJ’s mike while on holiday and was offered the job.
n Who has been the biggest influence on your career and why?
Alan Furnifur from the original Club 18-30 has to be the best dream weaver I’ve ever me. Steve Kimber has driven Cresta to win every major award since 1992.
n What has been your biggest challenge in the travel industry?
Explaining, over and over again to the multiple marketeers, that although Cresta sells a lot of holidays, each one is individually tailor-made and we do not sell packages. Also, discounting is not an option.
n What, apart from your current position, would be your ideal job in travel?
I’ve got it, but with more staff, more money and a four-day week.
n If you weren’t in travel, what would you be doing?
I would have my own radio show. Mind you, it would have to be on Radio 2 these days!
n What has been your most embarrassing moment in the travel industry?
On my first Cresta educational to France, I ordered a meal for agents – in my best schoolboy French – and we ended up with plates full of cows heads complete with fur. I reckon the screams could be heard three restaurants away.
n What advice would you give to someone starting out in the travel industry?
Our job is to create dreams for people, good enough for them to part with their hard-earned cash and come back and do it again next year. If we look after customers, their money looks after us.
n What do you always carry with you to work?
A picture of my kids and a credit-card statement to remind me why I do it!
n What one thing would you change about your job?
I’d buy a company helicopter. So many people to see, so little time.
n Make one prediction about
travel in the 21st century.
E-commerce will make a real difference to the shape of the industry but it will take longer than the experts predict. It will also reduce margins dramatically but Ithink the travel agent will, as usual, find a way to adapt andsurvive.
Personal talk
n What is your star sign?
Cancer/Leo (on the cusp).
n Who would be your ideal holiday companion? Where would you go?
No contest, my wife and kids to a mobile home in France… close to a good vineyard, butcher’s shop and patisserie.
n What would you change about yourself?
Get fitter and take time to relax more.
n Which living person do you most respect?
My father, because he came from nowhere and got somewhere.
n What is your greatest regret?
Getting old (although it’s better than the alternative).
n What’s your favourite TV programme/film/book?
My favourite TV programme has to be Father Ted; the film is The Quiet Man; and the book is Magician by Raymond Feist.
n What’s your idea of a great night out?
A Chinese banquet with good friends.
n If you could be anyone for a day who would it be?
Alex Ferguson on a Saturday. At least then I would get to see a match.
n How do you relax?
Golf, playing with my sons and the occasional glass with friends.
n What would you put on your gravestone?
Hello God, do you want to buy a holiday?
Keith Byrne
Job title: national sales manager.
Age: 45.
Born: Birkenhead, Wirrell.
Lives: Timperley, Cheshire.
Status: married to Sarah, two boys, Jack and Tom.
Education: Sale Grammar School and SalfordTechnical College.
Path to career: started career as club rep for Club18-30 in 1977. Moved to the position of areamanager while running the Club 18-30 winterroadshow. Was then promoted to northern salesmanager, going on to become national sales manager. Joined Cresta as national sales manager in 1990.