Helloooo from a new tourism job
Which is why I've been MIA
Greetings Readers,
How are you? I hope that you are well. :) I have a new job! I am in my third week and I now work for the destination management organization for the city where I live. I am in the office 3 days a week and at home 2 days a week. It was a huge change, but I love it!
This newsletter is not about my job but for a little bit of background, a lot of my new job involves planning familiarization trips or FAM trips, for media, travel agents, tour operators, journalists, content creators, etc. We arrange these trips to promote the destination so that they’ll promote it to their clients, arrange and sell tours, or influence their followers to travel to the destination. It is fun and I really feel like I am in my element.
I remember working in the association management industry for so long and being a bit envious of people who planned trips or arranged the fun activities, hotel stays and wanted to do that some day. Then I got my masters in tourism management and started working for a tour operator immediately where I had fun and learned a lot for almost three years. I am so excited to be in this new role because it is where I have wanted to be for about 20 years.
However, since I started in the busy season and I’m learning a lot and doing a lot, I’ve been so tired and this newsletter was not high on the priority list after feeling really excited about it again in February. I have barely even been reading. I am still here and I am still be writing. Because now I feel like I have a bit more space for creativity!
But for funsies, here are two things I’ve read this week and enjoyed. One is travel, the other is not.
Conde Nast’s top travel trends for 2025. These are not a laundry list of destinations but more like experiences. The first one is related to reading.
And this, an oral history of What About Bob? I love this movie. I know that to some, it has not aged well. However, I still laugh until there are tears in my eyes during some parts. “Is this corn handshucked?” I really enjoyed reading that article, even though I knew some of the story from listening to the Rewatchables episode about the movie, which was also very funny.
Thanks for being here and for reading, back to regular programming soon.
-Sonya
Congratulations, Sonya! Here’s to a new chapter and all the wonder unfolding with it!
Congrats on the new job! You will crush it, obviously. It sounds really cool.