After leaving the corporate world a few years ago, I was looking for a new challenge. My thoughts turned to the travel industry. I have been fortunate to live in five countries, work in over forty countries and travel to over fifty countries in my life so far. Having lived in the US for the past 16 years, I have also been fortunate to explore twenty of the fifty states and counting. But did my love for travel mean I could forge a successful career in the travel industry? There was only one way to find out. I signed up with the TripSchool in 2019 and completed their Tour Director Certification Training (Boot Camp) in NY. I also completed destination training for Washington DC (2020) and Chicago (2024). After an initial false start because of the pandemic (I went back into the corporate world for 4 years), I decided toward the end of 2023 to give tour directing another go and attended the ITMI/Trip School travel conference in Shreveport, Louisiana in November 2023. One of the companies, Premier Alaska Tours, invited me to come to Alaska for the 2024 summer to lead their pre- and post-cruise land tours. Five months later I had completed 19 tours and achieved an average guest survey score of 98% (3.90 out of 4.00 rating)! The guest survey comments were also amazing, and you can read some of them in my Campfire profile. The Alaska experience proved that this was an exciting career opportunity for me and that I had what it takes to be a successful tour director. With Alaska behind me for now, it’s time to look ahead and look for other tour directing opportunities in the United States and beyond. I am looking to fill up my calendar for 2025 so give me a chance; you won’t regret it!
"The best education I have ever received was through travel." - Lisa Ling
