Travel Job Series: Trip Whisperer
The travel industry is ripe with opportunity. There’s so many ways to work within the industry from travel publicist (me 🙋♀️) to writing about it, work at a hotel or an airline, tour company as a guide to geeking out on travel tech. There’s entire jobs around throwing big events, coordinating partnerships and creating travel products. You can travel the world and work remotely too.
In the height of Covid, Katie Parker-Magyar reached out to talk to me about it. Quite flattered, I happily obliged for the Forbes Series Women in Travel: An interview with Trip Whisperer.
That gave me some inspiration to keep sharing my journey, and want to share others who I know who have these cool travel jobs. Lots of times you have no idea these exist till you stumble upon them.
So here goes! Here’s a bit about me and how I got into running my own agency:
On the tarmac at JFK with a press crew greeting the new nonstop Kenya Airways route in 2018
Trip Whisperer Founder, Jessica Parker:
I went to University of Cincinnati in pursuit of an advertising and marketing degree. After a few years, this school was just not equipped for that speciality, and I found myself in the communications building in a public relations certificate program. For a girl who likes to talk and on the high emotional intelligence spectrum, it was actually a better fit for me.
From a young age, I had my heart set on New York City, the epicenter of media and advertising world. As soon as I graduated, I didn’t deviate from the plan and started an unpaid internship at a fashion PR agency — not my cup of tea, while supporting myself with a bar job (the non-glamorous and hustle side not on Instagram/before it existed!). Not long after, I wound up interning at a travel PR agency. I finally found my specialty! In many cases, I’m one of the few that is using my degree in my actual field.
Then the market crashed in 2008, and it was like starting all over. I did find my way back to travel PR less than two years later, however, it was hard won. From then on, I focused on being the best and most networked PR person in travel.
Fast forward to 2015, I had worked on so many types of businesses in tourism and was burnt out from the in-house hotel job as a director of marketing. I put in my notice, and set out to travel for a month to clear my head, figure out my future and give consulting a try.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be where I am now. When people asked, what will you do if it doesn’t work out? ‘I’ll figure it out if that times comes,’ I’d say.”
It’s now 2023. I still own and operate a successful travel public relations agency with the power and freedom to work with people that I respect, choose when I work and where from. It has it’s many ups and downs, but it’s opened so many doors, pathways and additional services I want to offer like travel planning, organizing group trips to Lebanon and more.
Something I heard many times over the years, ‘stick to your lane,’ which is something I don’t abide by anymore…
So, what does ‘a day on the job’ look like?
It’s fast-paced and no day is the same. That’s probably why I like it so much…here’s a snapshot of a day recently:
Creating a new business proposal in Canva
Drafting a timely pitch to a writer and monitoring the journalist queries
Planning details of a small group tour again to Lebanon (stay tuned)
Writing quotes for stories on behalf of clients on deadline and chasing them for approval 😅
Event planning and promoting client events
Setting up 1:1 appointments with the media in NYC
Sending invoices to clients
Writing this blog, monthly newsletter and social media to promote our team wins
Creating a custom itinerary for a client and talking to hotel concierges around the world for reservations
Email, email and more email
Current Projects/Wins to Celebrate:
We have several great PR clients right now with a few positive new business leads in the pipeline. When one door closes, another one always seems to open through constant networking and relationships. I’m also looking forward to going back to Lebanon to research some new openings and things for future trips! Stay tuned.
Biggest Career Risk:
Quit my job to start my own consulting agency with no real plan. In many cases, you have to be a little bit nuts, completely confident and naive at the same time.
Top Career Advice:
Be reliable and like-able. People want to work with people who they can count on and like. Definitely strive to be good at your job, however, I would place reliability and true to your word, higher. You will learn on the job in my field so be a sponge and do what you say you’re going to do.
It’s one of the single most important reasons that media always come to me. I’ll do what I say and am resourceful as h*ll, even beyond my own clients in many cases. Maintaining that relationship for current and future clients is paramount in media relations.
I will drop everything for a media lead and friend.
Career Highlight:
There are quite a few that all seem to center around airline clients and flight launches, but I will share one that is more recent.
Kenya Airways landed at my doorstep for a Travel Massive event. After a short call, it turned into a full fledged PR client and launch campaign that I was spearheading with NYC media events, CEO media tour, executed UNGA event at the Rainbow Room for a black tie sit down dinner with His Excellency President Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, JFK Airport ribbon cutting, aviation media on the tarmac upon landing, and a 15-media outbound press trip.
This was done by myself and a truly talented friend and event planner Tina Wright. It’s wild to think back on but I did that. All the while, I was juggling my dad’s terminal illness, international relationship in Beirut, TravelCon event and living out of a suitcase. It was just the chaos and distraction I needed at that time.
Most memorable trip and why?
Again a tough one, but I would have to say the trip to Ethiopia was kind of wild. It’s the most far-flung, off-the-grid place I’ve ever been. We accepted a trip from the tourism board back when I first started freelancing. We went to the far reaches of the lowest, hottest point on earth to the Danakil Depression in the Afar region, which looked and felt like walking on another planet. In the cover of night, we climbed up to an active lava lake Erta Ale. We saw relics as old as humanity with rock hewn churches, culture and religious traditions passed down for centuries. I’ll never forget that trip.
What would I tell my younger self?
Don’t listen the adults in the room. They’re still figuring it out. Go with what feels right and stick to your principles. I spoke up in a lot of rooms. While some might have found it pushy and probably annoying, it served me well by contributing and having a big voice. Also stick up for others in the room who need it! Bullies and office tyrants get away with it for a little while, till it catches up with them and I believe in karma. Stick to being a good person and doing your best.
Fun Fact:
I became obsessed with owning and operating a hotel barge, after many years of idolizing my aunt & uncle’s barge life back in the 80’s. The more I got into the travel industry, river and barge cruising kept coming up. I got deep into the pursuit. When I set my mind to something, well, it’s hard to stop me. I went to the Netherlands, UK and France to look at barges, speak to a custom barge builder as well as take a credited Barge School to receive my RYA license. While the dream is on the back-burner, it’s never far from my mind.
Hope you enjoyed my story and learned something new. Stay tuned for more Q&A features of friends who have cool jobs in the industry and how they got there!
