FORT LAUDERDALE — Anyone trying to recruit new entrants into travel need only show a video of seven cruise line and hotel executives describing the joys of working in travel. They told their tales as part of the "Addictive Industry" panel on Nov. 6 at Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld event here.
Andy Stuart, executive vice president for Norwegian Cruise Line, said that at the gym in the morning, everyone wants to talk to the cruise guy. "Everyone wants to be part of this business," he said. "I wake up the happiest guy every day."
Chris Austin, vice president of global leisure and luxury sales for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, said being in travel is exciting because it's about "making dreams come true."
Dondra Ritzenthaler, Celebrity Cruises' senior vice president of sales and trade support and services, said she was so "humbled and honored to be in travel." So many people have jobs they don't love, she said. "I genuinely, passionately love what I do. Not everyone is so lucky."
Vicki Freed, senior vice president of sales and trade support and services for Royal Caribbean International, said, "I view us all as MDs — memory doctors, providing lifelong memories."
The group recalled a variety of interesting first jobs, but Stuart topped them all. He had been a "pheasant beater," beating bushes to drive pheasants out of hiding and into the gun sights of hunters.
Ritzenthaler's first job had been as a lifeguard.
Freed recalled how she talked her way into a job at McDonald's but got fired when they found out she had lied about her age.
Mark Kammerer, Holland America Line's senior vice president of marketing and North America sales, started out mowing lawns at age 8. "I learned somebody can always find something wrong with your work. It prepared me perfectly for marketing."
When Freed was working at an Ask Mr. Foster travel agency, she heard Carnival Cruise Lines' Bob Dickinson speak.
"He made Carnival sound like an amazing company," she recalled. "It had the Mardi Gras and the Carnivale. I thought, 'What a dynamic man!' I thought, 'I want to work for that man.' I pestered him for six months before he hired me."
Joni Rein, Carnival Cruise Lines' vice president of worldwide sales, got into travel for love. She had met the man who would become her husband on a blind date, and he lived in Florida. So off she went to Florida, becoming the third employee of Certified Vacations.
Ken Muskat, senior vice president of sales and marketing at MSC Cruises USA, papered Miami corporations with resumes after he got out of college. He wasn't looking for travel, but Royal Caribbean called him to tell him about two positions: reservations and the entertainment department.
Muskat interviewed for both jobs. The marketing department liked that he had studied communications; they figured he could write newspaper ads for performers. But then he learned that part of the entertainment job included helping with auditions at Radio City Music Hall, with 400 women lined up outside.
"That was it," he said. He started in entertainment.
Kammerer fell in love with travel as a child, watching his grandfather's slide shows of African safaris "before it was hip." But he started his career working for Pillsbury, selling cookies.
Although he said cookies are still "one of my favorite foods," at a certain point, he began to wonder how long he wanted to sell them. Then he got a call about the cruise business, which he saw as his opportunity to market an intangible.
"It's been the most interesting way I could spend my time in the last 20 years," he said.