Cruising the Mexican Riviera in May, kicking off June by attending the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and breaking up the banal with biannual visits to her holiday house in Rhodes.
I did my work experience in a travel agency when I was 16 years old; I liked the people contact, I’m a people person, and I loved the fact that I’m selling dreams, it’s a very lovely product to sell.
Many would say Helen Georgas is living the dream, but this high-flying business woman says selling dreams is what her job is all about.
The Savvy Sydney-sider, who has run and owned Jetset Marrickville travel agency for nine years now, says her business steadily increases between 10 to 20 percent each year.
Later this month the business will relocate to a premises triple the size of its current store, expanding from five to eight consultants, Georgas says.
Although online flight and accommodation booking increasingly threaten to obliterate the travel agent’s role, Georgas insists there are always time-poor people who don’t want the responsibility of arranging their own travel.
“We know where to look to get the bargains, I think that makes the difference, and a lot of people have been burnt on the Internet, a lot of people won’t touch international online bookings,” she says.
Georgas’ career path certainly ventures off the beaten track.
Starting out with a science degree and working in microbiology in her early twenties, which she says she hated, Georgas later became involved in business with her husband for many years, in everything from tobacco and gift shops to property.
After obtaining her MBA Georgas wanted her own business, separate from her husband.
After buying into the Marrickville travel agency as a silent partnership, Georgas liked it so much she decided to run it.
“I did my work experience in a travel agency when I was 16 years old; I liked the people contact, I’m a people person, and I loved the fact that I’m selling dreams, it’s a very lovely product to sell,” Georgas says, adding that nine times out of ten she deals with happy people.
The perks of the job certainly take Georgas to new heights.
“I do go twice a year on educational tours; this year I went on a five star cruise on the Mexican Riviera in May, and in June one of my suppliers had me sent on an educational tour to South Africa, where my husband and I went to the Serbia VS Australia FIFA World Cup game, and we did a safari of Kruger national park,” she says.
Georgas says educational tours are essential in selling travel, and she insists on sending her employees every year.
“We cater for such a broad section of needs that we get requests from everywhere to Antarctic to Africa to South America to Bangkok; we’ve got so many different requests that everyone in the office has to be educated in something, and I am adamant that all my girls go on educational tours every year, so they can learn the product,” she tells.
Armed with a well-worn passport and a ticket to ride, Georgas doesn’t hesitate to answer that her favourite holiday spot in the world is none other than the glitzy, larger than life, Las Vegas.
Describing it as an “adult’s playground” Georgas says Vegas combines the best of shopping, dining, drinking, and “fantastic nightlife”.
For others looking to follow this career path, Georgas says a flair for customer service and a passion for travel are vital.
“I would say that if you believe you have people skills and love human contact and want to be in the hospitality industry, then being a travel agent is a decently paid job, and good if people want to travel; the perks are there.”