That was the message from Iain Powell, head of trade sales at Saga, speaking at the TTG Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders conference at WTM London.
He revealed his career in travel “wasn’t at all planned”, but came after his dad advised against a career as a professional golfer.
After roles with Virgin Holidays, overseas with Thomson and First Choice and in aviation purchasing at Tui, Powell joined Carnival UK in 2014 and later its trade sales team.
Touching upon the restructuring of Carnival’s sales force, Powell, an alumnus of the 2015-16 intake of the TTG Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders programme, admitted to delegates that during the time he “did some things really well and some things really badly”.
“I watched close friends leave the business and I hated it. I understood the need for change, but it’s never a nice process to go through. There was naturally some resentment in me [towards Carnival] for a time after.
When I look back on it, while I may not have shown it outwardly, I didn’t deal with the emotional side of it as well as I could.”
He advised that, while delegates would always have to deal with change and there would inevitably be an emotional response, it is how that is dealt with that counts.
Meanwhile, fellow 30 Under 30 member, Jamie-Lee Abtar, business development manager for the Caribbean Tourism Organization, urged those looking to break into the industry to “always follow up” after meetings to get the most out of networking opportunities.
She described how, after coming to Bournemouth University from her native Barbados to study for her masters in tourism management and marketing, she attended WTM London on the hunt for an internship.
“I walked the entire floor, followed up with everyone and within two weeks I got something.”
John Bevan, dnata Travel Europe chief executive, agreed that an “essential” aspect of advancing a career in travel was networking.
