08.08.88

8th August 1988, Yes your right this was the day I was born………….

Ok well maybe not maybe its more wishful thinking than anything else , but this date does hold a place in my heart . I was 16 years old and walked into a Travel Agency for my first day of work, a very shy girl and a shadow of the person I have now become and that was the start of an amazing journey and here I am 25 years later , far from shy, but still as young looking as I was back then . (If Only)

I remember the days when the staff as well as the customers used to smoke over the counter while sharing stories, booking holidays and drinking cups of tea. (Not Me I might add). It was more of a social gathering in those days than the professionalism you see in retail travel shops now. can you imagine doing that now, offering a customer a cup of tea and an ashtray. How times have changed and for that reason for the better.

I remember (yes I can remember that far back), when we had to phone each operator in turn we were  on the phone in a queue for hours only to finish the booking to pull out the cheque book and send the deposit to the operator. No direct debits then.

My days back then were spent making tea and stamping brochures and were long and tedious but looking back now it would be nice to back in time and appreciate not having the work load we now have :-).

Tour Operators have come and gone and I still remember the call , it was 6am on a Saturday morning and My Regional manager called me at home to say I had to go to the office as Intasun, one of the UKs largest Tour Operator had gone into liquidation. Once the news broke out customers queued out of the door and down the street for weeks either changing their holidays or fighting to get their money back, which they of course did. I think I went grey that week.

In those days a package holiday was what it said on the tin and included everything, a meal on the flight (whether you liked it or not) and of course luggage allowance came as standard.

The craziest campaign must be when Airtours decided to reward very customer that booked a holiday a second holiday for £99. Yes its true and again customers queued and queued for such an amazing offer. A family of four could benefit from a second holiday the same year for £396 Total. Accomodation was a basic 2 star allocated on arrival deal but for £99 would you care!!

I became a Manager at the age of 18 and continued to be up until 6 months ago when I finally left the world of Retail to join Cruise.Co and have never looked back. Many things have changed over the last 25 years including myself, but one thing for certain is my passion for customer service has always remained the same and will continue to for another 25 years.

Do you have any wonderful stories to tell from years gone by, I would love to hear them.

So happy 25years to colleagues and customers past and present I will be raising a glass on the 8th.