Midweek Catch-up with TravelManagers’ Julia McLean

This week the business partnership manager from TravelManagers, Julia McLean, told us she loves starting each day with a walk on the beach, even if it’s raining, which is great for her considering the weather lately.

What’s your main goal for this year?

The pandemic has created such uncertainty and so many new things for agents to consider that my main goal this year is to help agents rediscover their confidence in booking travel.

I will do this by firstly assisting my established personal travel managers and secondly newcomers who want to have their own travel business to successfully navigate these challenges.

I want to help experienced consultants who may have been laid off or owner/managers who have been forced to look at cost-saving measures or close their agency to rediscover their confidence in booking travel by identifying the benefits of an alternative business model backed by a knowledgeable, experienced and caring support team.

What’s your favourite thing about working in the travel industry?

The people. It is an industry that sparks joy (when there isn’t a pandemic) which really is a rarity in the business world. I love partnering with each of our personal travel managers and assisting them to achieve their individual business goals.

How do you like to spend your free time?

I love spending my free time with my husband and 2 daughters.

I am also blessed to live in one of the most beautiful places in NSW and I am an avid walker.

I love starting each day with a walk on the beach, rain or shine. I also love putting my hands to work with renovating old furniture.

Have you managed to do any travelling since restrictions began to ease (domestic or international)?

A quick family trip up the NSW north coast to Yamba has been our only travel so far but there are lots of plans to do more in the year to come.

What’s your favourite travel company, besides the one you work for?

Oh I don’t pick favourites…but I must say it has been great to see the support some suppliers have provided to our personal travel managers throughout the pandemic.

Those suppliers who truly recognise the mutual benefit of the partnership between supplier and agents working together will be the ones to thrive post-pandemic.

If you could invite three famous guests (dead or alive) to a dinner party, who would you choose?

Queen Elizabeth II, the historical events she has been a part of and witnessed would be amazing, Sir Richard Branson for his entrepreneurial business and travel nouse and Michelle Obama such a strong female leader– I think they would make for very lively conversation

What’s something positive you’ve witnessed or experienced since the global pandemic hit?

I loved seeing people push themselves out of their comfort zones by taking on further study or activities to expand themselves.

Others have spent time reinventing their businesses to accommodate the new travel landscape. It has been inspiring to see so many making the most of the unexpected downtime they had and looking positively to the future.

What’s your advice for others in the travel industry on coping with the global pandemic?

My biggest advice is to be kind to yourself. Take time for you, away from the desk.

The importance of acknowledging your stress and struggles whilst remembering that this too shall pass.

Look for and hold tight the blessings and gratitude in some of the little things in life outside of work.

What book and/or TV show can you not get enough of lately?

I binged watched Emily in Paris with my daughters recently and am already looking forward to the next season. It really takes me back to my holidays in Paris.

Do you have any travel goals for 2022?

Club Med Kani, Maldives is the goal for the end of this year.

We had a fantastic family holiday there not long before the pandemic started and I can’t think of a better place to go to relax and recover after the last couple of years.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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