David Danby, area director marketing -Europe, Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts
Education: GCEO’ and A’ levels. When David joined Trusthouse Forte he completed a two-year management trainee scheme as well as attending evening courses at the Institute of Marketing. He also completed a tourism course at Guildford University and many in-house training courses schemes from Hotel Marketing by Cornell University to Executive Selection from Manchester Business School.
First Travel Job: washing dishes in a seaside hotel.
Career path: David started as a trainee manager with Trusthouse Forte before joining Hallway Hotels as an assistant manager working in Lagos, Kano, Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Dar-es-Salaam. He returned to London to join Strand Hotels and later Grand Metropolitan Hotels. It was during this time that he became interested in marketing and sales. After a brief return to Hallway Hotels he joined Inter-Continental Hotels where he worked in London, Dubai and Vienna in various marketing positions over the last 16 years. In late 1998 he took up his current position as area director marketing – Europe for Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts.
Advice for people wishing to develop a career in travel: “Always take full advantage when working for a global company to learn another language (or two)as early as possible and then check out all the company training and development programmes, from fast track to assisted MBA schemes.”