A DAY WITH... C THE WORLD
Carolyn Park set up her first agency after five years in travel and now has three branches. Juliet Dennis visited the team in Bath
BATH TEAM:
Zoe Barnes, Carolyn Park, Julie Pymm and Steven Giles
For someone who dropped out of school during her A Levels with no idea what career to pursue, Carolyn Park hasn’t done badly. After stints as a pub chef and equestrian
centre manager, Park turned to travel, and eight years ago, after five years at Cheltenham-based Tailor Made Travel, she set up C The World from her garden shed. The agency now has 13 staff across
three branches in Bristol, Thornbury (recently relocated from Easter Compton, Gloucestershire) and Bath. The Bath branch
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
JULIE PYMM, SALES CONSULTANT I’ve worked for C The World in Bath since... it opened two years ago. I came from the former World Market Travel in
Bath, where I started in 1983. What I love about my job is…that every day is different. Yesterday I booked a Shearings coach tour to Whitby and today I am doing a Sea Cloud booking. I still get a buzz. When I was younger I wanted to be….a travel agent. I was stamping brochures at 14.
STEVEN GILES, SALES CONSULTANT I’ve worked here
since...it opened. I came with Julie from World Market Travel, and I’ve been in travel for 30 years.
What I love about my job is…the variety. It’s not often I wake up and don’t want to come to work. A lot of clients have also become close friends. When I was younger I wanted to be…a travel agent. My dad was an agent and I never thought of doing anything else.
ZOE BARNES, SALES CONSULTANT I’ve worked here since... December, and before that I worked at another agency for 20 years. What I love about my job
is…getting my teeth into a good booking and the fact that you never know what your next enquiry might be. When I was younger...I was offered a job in a chemical plant, testing chemicals, but I turned it down to go into travel and I haven’t looked back since.
sits in one of the city’s oldest shopping arcades, The Corridor, dating back to 1825. It opened in September 2016. Park likes to have a project on the go. “I’m
terrible if I don’t have one,” she said. So she wasn’t fazed when the Bath shop
was in a state of disrepair when she bought it. The former opticians, left empty for several
years, had a hatch in the floor and a ladder that led to a dark cellar. Within three months, the shop’s interior had undergone a major transformation
into a contemporary-looking agency with a new staircase to the cellar, which had been transformed into a mock aircraft cabin with a fully stocked bar. “I wanted somewhere special for clients and didn’t want to cut corners,” said Park, who uses the space to entertain potential clients and hand out tickets as well as for training members of the C The World team. Each agency has similar quirky touches,
the latest of which will be a 16-seat cinema in Thornbury.
34
travelweekly.co.uk 23 August 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
