Victoria Baikie, regional sales manager for Scotland and Tyne Tees, Stena Line
Education: eight 0′ levels and two A’ levels in English and Art. Victoria also gained a Higher National Diploma in Hotel Catering, Sales and Management at Glasgow College of Food and Technology.
First travel job: a cultural representative at Walt Disney World in Florida, where she spent a year. Her job involved working at the theme park, and liaising with customers at the airport and in their hotels.
Career path: after six months spent travelling around the US, Victoria returned to Scotland. She joined the Craigendarroch Group as a receptionist in its West Point Hotel in East Kilbride, and later transferred to the company’s Cameron House Hotel in Loch Lomond as a senior receptionist. After two years, she left to have a baby, then joined a Glasgow branch of Lunn Poly as a sales consultant. She had a brief spell at independent travel agent Blenheim Travel in Clydebank, before it went out of business. Then she got a job as reservations manager at the Patio Hotel in Clydebank, where she spent a year. One day at work she ran into a guest she knew, a former sales manager at Cameron House Hotel, who by then had moved to AT Mays. She was headhunted on the spot, and joined AT Mays’ (later Carlson Worldchoice’s) telesales department as a senior sales consultant. Once there, she was soon promoted to commercial buyer. Victoria joined Stena Line last month.
Advice for people wishing to develop a career in travel: “Enjoy and learn all about the job you are doing at the time. When you are at your very best, look around for what’s next. There are always lots of opportunities in travel.”