21 year old Jodie Pilgrim from party travel brand Party Hard Travel has been announced as a finalist in the 2018 IBM iX everywoman in Travel Awards. The awards are designed to recognise role models in the travel industry who are inspiring the next generation of travel stars. Jodie is a finalist in the Tomorrow’s Travel Leaders category sponsored by TTG.
Graduate accountant Jodie has worked for Party Hard Travel full time for 2 years, after initially working for the brand in resort whilst at university. Party Hard Travel have enjoyed their most successful season to date in 2018, with over 11,000 clubbers across 7 resorts looked after by the team of resort hosts recruited, trained and managed by Jodie.
“2018 saw me travelling to colleges and universities all around the country, talking to students and encouraging them to consider travel as an interesting, viable career choice. It was also about changing negative perceptions that people might have of the old style ‘rep’ job and of the travel industry itself. At Party Hard Travel we focus on service not sales, so it’s a very different role to what people might imagine.”
But with the 2018 party travel season barely over, Londoner Jodie already has her sights set on the 2019 season, when the resort team will double to 30.
“In 2019, my job will be even bigger because we need even more bright, motivated young people to join our team. When I deliver these presentations to young people, I will be sharing stories about many leaders in the travel industry who started out working in resort, it’s a brilliant way of getting to truly understand a brand’s success factor- its customers.”
The travel industry contributes over £130 billion to the UK economy yet fears over Brexit mean that many of the EU workers that make up 24% of the UK’s travel workforce are choosing to relocate. Encouraging young people into the travel industry is becoming even more vital for the future health of the industry and the larger UK economy. This is something that Jodie is well aware of.
“Often, the perception can be that travel isn’t a serious career choice, but in terms of prospects and opportunity it is unparalleled. Party Hard Travel are a young, innovative and growing company, and we give our staff real responsibility and influence to make change. We’ve taken on 3 of our resort hosts from the season full time and they’ve come from a variety of educational backgrounds. Alex Dudeney has just finished his PGCE, Luke Harris his post graduate degree in psychological wellbeing and Lana Eardley has a first class degree in tourism management. It’s about creating greater awareness of what travel can offer.”
With her undoubted achievements in positioning travel as an attractive career choice, Jodie is delighted about her nomination in the everywoman in Travel Awards.
“A lot of young people are indifferent to the travel industry. It’s not even on their radar. I’ve been there myself, and felt I had to go into the ‘proper’ profession of accounting. It was only my experience with Party Hard Travel that forced me to open my eyes to the prospects of travel and take the leap.”
“To be in the position of being able to give other young people that opportunity to give travel a fresh look, and throw aside misconceptions and dated ideas about the industry is hugely exciting. Being nominated for the everywoman in Travel Awards is just lovely, and proves that if you follow your heart rather than your head, the rewards can be so much greater.”
Winners will be announced at a ceremony held at East Wintergarden, located between the iconic towers of Canary Wharf in London on 14 November.
