Celebrating women leaders

As International Women’s Day approaches, celebrates the women leaders in tourism and hospitality sectors, who are doing extraordinary work in their fields and inspiring coming generation.

Shehara Rizly

Kathryn Wallington, Head of Middle East, Africa, UK and Ireland, Travelport

Inspiration to join travel tech
I’ve always been passionate about the next era of travel, and I quickly established that technology would play a significant role on how the travel industry will evolve. Simply put, I wanted to be a part of the evolution. As consumers become more advanced and discerning, technology can provide a tailored, customised solution at scale. Today, together with my team, I am responsible for delivering best-in-class technology that meets the evolving needs of all Travelport’s customers across the regions and I feel fortunate to sit on the frontlines of the travel tech evolution.

Journey in the industry
I knew from an early age that I wanted to go into the travel industry. I studied Travel and Tourism and quickly established that the industry is extremely vast. I started as a Sales Consultant with Thomas Cook Retail, and after holding various positions over 13 memorable years, I left the organisation as a Regional Sales Manager. On reflection, I can truly say their training allowed me to develop both professionally and personally. I then entered the world of travel technology, joining Travelport as Head of Sales for the UK and Ireland. Since then, I have built strong operational, customer support and business development expertise across other roles, including Head of Customer Support for Europe, Global Customer Advocacy Senior Director and Head of Business Development for Europe. Advancing through a series of nine positions, I am now accountable for driving sales, identifying growth opportunities and building Travelport’s profile for the Middle East, Africa, UK & Ireland.

Key achievements and challenges
There are so many key moments that stand out to me, but two of my top achievements were receiving the Sales Manager of the Year award at the TTG Business Awards, and the DDP Gamechanger award at the Arabian Travel Awards. On a more personal note, I also took some time off to become a mum to a beautiful girl, who is now 11 and a gorgeous boy, who is eight. Additionally, when we left the UK (the only place we had ever lived) to move to Dubai was a key milestone.

Secrets to success in life
It is important to be confident and secure in who you are if you want to succeed. Never stop challenging yourself, but always be respectful. Be hungry to learn and always invest in your team – you cannot do it alone. Build strong customer relationships based on honest dialogue and aim to put customers first whilst balancing this with achieving company goals. Enjoy and manage change effectively, as it’s inevitable. Embrace it.

Message to aspiring women
One of the many wonderful things about the travel industry is how vast and varied it is. The industry is about education, marketing, entertainment, finance, cultural awareness, and so much more. These are all highly valuable skills that can be transferred to and from other industries. It tends to attract fun and outgoing people who are curious about people and places.

Madina Al Balushi, Country Manager – Bahrain, Oman Air

Inspiration to join aviation
I was initially inspired by my underlying passion for flying and discovering the beauty of the world. I also had a strong desire to learn new, different and interesting things.

Journey so far in the industry
My journey began when I first joined the industry as a flight attendant. After flying for a few years, I transitioned to other areas of the aviation sector—but this time on the ground. I started off in sales and worked my way up to Country Manager in Bahrain and within the GCC.

Achievements and challenges
Key milestones and achievements should always be viewed within the context of getting the job done successfully. Ensure customer satisfaction are always at the forefront of career milestones. Being consistent in your areas means that achievements and successes will inevitably follow.

Secrets to success in life
Success comes from the heart — as long as you have a deep desire to make your dreams come true, then anything is possible. As long as you follow your passion, and complement it with hard work, your knowledge will succeed in what you do.

Message to aspiring women
I would encourage women to begin their journey in aviation early on and to fully embrace the challenges of a dynamic and innovative industry.

Deepa Iyer, Director of Sales & Business Development Cozmo Travel

Inspiration to join travel trade
As early as at 19 years of age, I felt I had a flair and passion to learn about new destinations, their customs, meet new people from different walks of life and so many such aspects within travel. I also knew that I had dedication, good research and organising skills, compassionate about people’s need by understanding their requirement and above all I was yearning for adventure. All this paved the path for me to take up a career as a travel agent.

Journey so far in the industry
I believe I was destined to be in this industry. During my early years of being a university student, I was recruited by Emirates to be a fare auditor within the airline where I served for over three years. Thereafter, I moved the ladder to be a fraud prevention officer and then within the Holidays division. In 2008, my current CEO gave me an opportunity to work with the Air Arabia Group where I got a chance to do multiple roles and also grew organically within the company. I made sure in all my journey, I never stopped learning and keeping myself briefed constantly about the industry, which is the reason I continuously moved through the positive direction.

Achievements and challenges
I started as a fare auditor to fraud prevention officer, to a travel consultant, to where I am today, leading Sales and Business Development for one of the largest TMC in the region. With God’s grace and His blessings combined with sincere efforts, I definitely have come a long way and it feels privileged and honored.

Secrets to success in life

Self-Belief
• Hardwork, spent long hours to study and complete the projects within given or early timelines
• Willingness to explore taking calculated risks
• Tried to keep myself motivated despite challenges
• Maintained a certain like of balance and discipline

Message to aspiring women
Each one of us as a WOMAN should follow our passion irrespective of the different hats we wear and different roles in life we need to play. And if any of you have identified exploring your career in the industry as their forte, please do take the plunge and follow your dream. The good thing is that the industry is huge and one won’t ever get bored with travel as a profession. There are various areas to explore one’s interest and strength, and as women we have an amazing quality of being multi-tasking. We should take advantage of this and go all out.

We would also observe that we could get acquainted with people all over the world who share the same passion for travel.

Siobhan Naughton, Marketing & Trade Executive ME & AsiaTourism Ireland

Inspiration to join industry
I belong to a place in Ireland called County Kerry, which is often referred to as the home of tourism due to its beauty and the long established thriving tourism industry that exists there. Being from such a place people used to say that tourism is in my blood.

Journey so far in the industry
I started out working for Shannon Development, which is a regional development agency based in the South West of Ireland. This company established the first ever free zone in the world in Shannon and world’s first ever Duty Free also at Shannon Airport. I then worked for the tourism board in the Republic of Ireland called Failte Ireland on the Wild Atlantic Way Team before joining Tourism Ireland here in Dubai six years ago. The Wild Atlantic Way is presumably the world’s longest defined coastal touring route.

Achievements and challenges
The main milestones in my career have happened since I started working for Tourism Ireland here in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) . Ireland becoming visa-free for UAE nationals at the end of January 2018 was definitely a highlight and I know that our upcoming Middle East Sales Mission, which is being led by Catherine Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, and Tourism Ireland’s CEO Niall Gibbons, will be another highlights.

Secrets to success in life
As the oriental proverb goes “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”. It ensures that whatever you do life, you will love to do it, which will ultimately take you miles in life.

Message to aspiring women
Go for it, it is such a lovely industry to work in, and the people are always so positive and supportive to each other.

Deveekaa Nijhawan, Global Lead for International PR & Communications, Qatar Tourism

Inspiration and journey so far
I was born in the hospitality industry as my father was the General Manager with the Oberoi Hotels & Resorts Group. As he took over different hotels, we travelled a lot and lived in 10 countries and travelled to over 50 cities. As a result, I learnt to embrace different cultures early in my life. I loved meeting people and interacting with different nationalities, making me fall in love with this industry. When I was very young, I had told my father I would follow in his footsteps and join the industry as well.

At that time no one took me seriously and today when I look back, life has come full circle indeed! Venturing into Public Relations happened by chance as initially I thought I would get into the business side of things; hence I had graduated in Business Management from the University of Warwick in UK, but it seemed destiny had other things planned for me.

Looking back, I couldn’t have chosen a more befitting career path. I have received multiple promotions at the iconic Le Méridien Dubai Hotel & Conference Centre, head hunted as the Director of PR & Communications for Niyama Private Islands Maldives, been promoted to the Cluster Director of PR & Marketing Communications for the entire Anantara Group in the Maldives and been awarded the coveted Hotelier Middle East Award for the Best PR and Marketing Person in the Middle East & Africa region amongst 500 nominees.

Last year I started a new journey with Qatar Tourism, leading the International PR & Communications Strategy. The transition from hospitality to the tourism industry has been very seamless, wherein I have been able to leverage my years of hospitality, media relations and communications experience to increase awareness and advocacy for

Qatar as a destination. It has been an exhilarating and exciting journey and 2022 is going to be a year like no other, with history being made with the first FIFA World Cup being held in the Middle East region.

Achievements and challenges
I have had a fascinating journey, with the last 15 years just flying by. Some of my key achievements have been launching new hotels, one of the largest ballrooms in the Middle East, rebranding iconic flagship brands, collaborating with various A-List Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities on unique and exciting concepts, fostering several strategic global and regional partnerships, building a strong rolodex network of high-profile media relationships globally and launching exciting new experiences.

Ironically, throughout my career every challenge I have faced has always transitioned into an achievement. The hospitality industry is very competitive with new hotels and concepts regularly launching; hence it was always a challenge to ensure Le Meridien was still relevant and a top consideration for guests and media. However, I was able to leverage my media relationships and launch several exciting concepts, I rebranded 10 of the 18 restaurants, launched a 200-room hotel extension project and repositioned the hotel to be the leading F&B, Events and

MICE destination.
We are working towards hosting the first FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ in the Middle East and achieving our 2030 vision of attracting more than six million visitors a year.

We have a host of exciting new initiatives to announce in the coming year, which will include our biggest promotional marketing campaign “Experience a World Beyond” released in October 2021 in key markets across the globe and will see its introduction in Middle East by the first quarter of 2022.

Secrets to success in life
Hard work, confidence and determination to create a difference are the secrets of my success. There are no shortcuts. Patience, persistence and passion are the prerequisites for success.

Message to aspiring women
Be focussed, resilient and undeterred by challenges, as you are bound to face them. My advice would be to be yourself, as everyone else is already taken.