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30 Under 30: Anna Perrott

Golf was Anna Perrott’s big passion in life until her career swung in another direction. The 30 Under 30 recruit and Flexicruise product manager tells Katherine Lawrey about her career to date.

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Meet 30 Under 30 recruit and Flexicruise product manager Anna Perrott

Professional sport was one avenue open to Anna Perrott, product manager, Flexicruise. While at school she represented England at golf and played hockey to a high level too. ‘Sport was my thing, when I was younger,” she says. Politics was another potential calling. “I was in the debating team for fun, and I represented Great Britain in parliament when I was 17.”

 

She pursued a golf career for a while, taking a gap year to teach golf in a private school in Bangkok, and even turned semi-pro while in Thailand, trying her hand on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour. “I won the Bangkok Open but I couldn’t quite cut it in the professional market, and I was a little homesick so I decided to come home,” she says.

 

After struggling to get sponsorship in the UK, she took a job on a golf sports website, selling clubs and equipment. “I quickly progressed to sales manager so I was gutted when I was made redundant.”

 

A Cruise.co.uk advert in a newspaper looking for new recruits who could sell and loved to travel caught her eye, and she joined the cruise agency in January 2011. “They trained me from scratch and I fell in love with cruise. I was one of the top sellers for three years, and there were fantastic fams and rewards. I’d hit the nail on the head with sales, but I was looking for something more. I wanted more input into making the phones ring, or going out the road."

 

She spent six months knocking on doors, but experienced a series of setbacks due to her lack of experience: “Knockbacks aren’t great,” she admits. “But they do make you a stronger person and more determined.”

 

If at first you don’t succeed

 

Belleair didn’t hire Perrott when she applied for a sales rep role with the company, but she was front of mind for another opportunity, which arose when its directors launched a new direct cruise business, Flexicruise, in October 2014. “For the first year I was dedicated to Flexicruise and a jack of all trades because it was a small team. I negotiated contracts and deals, I helped develop the website, I trained and managed the sales team.”

 

The business got off to a flyer, turning over £1 million after three months of trading, and just a year after launch it was recognised with Clia’s Rising Star Award. But Perrott is not one to rest on her laurels for long. Her role now is turning towards the trade with the soft launch of Belleair Cruise. “We soft launched in January,” she says. “I’m setting up contracts and looking for potential business. This is my baby from the start.”

 

With three mentors in the business – directors Dave Green and James Coughlan and strategic consultant Jenny Ellis, who share a range of expertise across the industry – she has some solid career advice to draw on. And she sees huge potential in the cruise industry. “Cruise is always changing, and there’s more room for agents to innovate in the way they sell it. A personal goal of mine is to get Millennials cruising and remove that stigma for the younger generation.”

 

While she may be spending less time on the golf course these days, it’s still a hobby for her: “There aren’t enough women golfers in the industry. I’d like to get a few more women into it, and show the lads how it’s done.”

 

 

Caroline Kitcher, HR director at Tui UK & Ireland – sponsors of Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders – says:

 

Anna’s boundless energy and determination to succeed have resulted in an incredible career in the cruise industry so far, and one which she should be very proud of. Despite the setbacks that she has experienced her perseverance has paid off, allowing her appetite for a challenge to open up opportunities for her to work on some amazing projects.

 

Her newly discovered passion for cruise and desire to always be doing more, demonstrates that her involvement in the role goes far beyond what is expected of her. The personal investment she has applied to each and every project so far is highly commendable. It is great to see someone so enthusiastic not only about the industry itself, but about the potential for change and innovation, and I am very excited to see what she will go on to achieve next.

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