Meet Lucy, a self-confessed travel addict.
Travel is her passion and, having signed up to become a Not Just Agent back in 2017, it’s now her full-time profession which means she’s planning holidays, travelling the world and earning money, too.
Back in her 20s, Lucy lived in Spain’s Santiago de Compostela, and for another period she lived in the Spanish capital of Madrid. She also confesses to having visited Ibiza “probably about 30 times or more!”
While adventures in Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Argentina kept the Hispanic theme going, Lucy has also ticked off Sri Lanka (where she spent her honeymoon) and admits to having a soft spot for California and Thailand.
Throughout her corporate career in marketing, Lucy always longed to carve out a full-time career in travel. In fact, stints working for a hotel booking site and as the UK marketing manager for Radisson Hotels were among her top jobs.
But when she found herself working as a marketing manager within the food industry, she realised it was time to take the initiative and change her life.
Lucy joined The Travel Franchise and launched her home-based travel agency, initially building her new business alongside her full-time job.
Some 10 months later, with business picking up pace, she jacked in the corporate role to focus full-time on building her consultancy.
Today, Lucy loves the fact that she travels (virtually) every day…
“When you work in travel, you get to explore the world. In the morning you could be working on Italy and in the afternoon you’re researching and planning holidays to Thailand. I genuinely love helping people travel – it’s my raison d’etre. I want to see as many different places as I can – if I can’t get there, at least I can send my clients there and experience it through them.”
Being a mum, Lucy picks up a lot of work from among local families, so arranging package holidays to the likes of Greece, Spain and Florida are her bread and butter. But increasingly so, she’s getting more obscure requests to get her teeth into such as a tailor-made trip to Columbia and a road trip through California with a stay at a cowboy ranch.
But, of course, it’s not just her customers who get to travel. One of the perks of being a travel agent is that Lucy gets to indulge in her passion too, enjoying substantial discounts on the way.
“I drive my husband crazy every day saying: ‘Look at this deal. Look at that deal’. Finally he is like, yeah, that one sounds good. So in February we took a family holiday to Singapore and Thailand, which was amazing. Being able to show my son the world is my driver. I want to take him on as many holidays as I can.”
And then there is what we call in the travel industry ‘fam trips’ – these are overseas events organised by Not Just Travel’s key suppliers to ‘familiarise’ agents with their products.
“I’ve had a brilliant, ridiculous, 12 months. I was invited to Pittsburgh on a fam trip last summer, then Fred Olsen invited me on a cruise from Lisbon to Dover..”
And her second cruise experience is waiting in the dock. Having joined Not Just Travel’s new Cruise Mastery programme, Lucy is joining her fellow travel consultants on a week-long Seminar at Sea on board Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady in June.
Not only will she get to enjoy the first-class cruise experience she’ll also network with other agents and NJT staff, plus join cruise training sessions where she’ll learn how to make the most of what is a particularly lucrative sector of the travel industry.
Training overseas is a great way for Not Just Travel to educate agents – there’s no better way to learn about a destination than to visit it. That’s why each year we take agents away on a free Millionaire’s or International Retreat. In 2023, Cyprus was the destination of choice and Lucy attended.
“Cyprus was fantastic. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and the company training sessions were very enlightening with the opportunity to network and meet other agents and Not Just Travel staff. I learned tips on how your mindset can influence your business.”
Lucy is upbeat about where her company is headed. It certainly seems that for this travel addict, she’s chosen the perfect career path. Who knows where it’s going to take her next?
