Melissa inadvertently began her travel industry career at the tender age of 14 when, while growing up in Ludlow, she took a weekend job at the famous 17th century coaching inn at The Feathers Hotel. The money she subsequently saved gave her the opportunity to travel around Australia when she graduated from university in 1997.
While in Oz, Melissa capitalised on her hotel experience to work in various 5-star hotels taking her from The Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas, where she served champagne to executives while dressed as a wizard, to the Sydney Hilton where she provided silver service at a Neil Sedaka cabaret residency. She even found herself catering for a group of wealthy pensioners, sailing around the idyllic Orpheus Island on their luxury boat.
Melissa’s work funded sky-diving, camping safaris in the outback and a journey home through South-east Asia, taking in Indonesia and Thailand.
On her return to the UK, Melissa’s experience proved to be the perfect training for a travel consultant. She was quickly offered a job at Quest Travel in Kingston Upon Thames, creating holidays to worldwide destinations and managing one of the sales teams. During her 8 years there, she took advantage of every available opportunity to travel: visits to Canada, the Cook Islands and South Africa to name a few – with countless return trips to Australia and Asia.
Aware of her encyclopaedic knowledge of airlines and hotels, and her serious passion for Southeast Asia, Sam (a former colleague at Quest) and Tom persuaded Melissa to join Experience Travel Group in its early days. She now works as our Product Director, making sure we offer the most varied and interesting holidays in the business.
Since becoming a mother in 2011, Melissa hasn’t slowed down and continues to travel often. Her children have been lucky enough to accompany her on research trips and holidays to Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, Vietnam and Cambodia.
“Never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience.” – Alex Garland
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An Epic Adventure Across Southeast Asia
