Hasibe Avci
Hasibe started to work in the tourism sector after high school. She worked for Simena Travel Group (STG) International for two years in their Kaş office. As STG downsized and closed their Kaş office, Hasibe got an offer from Bougainville Travel and joined them to work in the sales office. At the time BT was much smaller, they all worked on the entrance floor, with the management in the rear rooms. She was dealing with walk-in customers at that time. She found that she liked working on organizing tours more than sales and she asked for a change and her request was accepted.
Hasibe now works in the incoming department. She follows all the correspondence with agencies that bring tourists from abroad. She takes the reservations, prepares the programs, proposals and prices. There are always new agencies, either they find BT or BT finds them. There are also local agencies they work with that bring Turkish tourists to Kaş. Once the bookings are made, she helps organize the tours, she passes all the necessary information to the organizing group in BT.
Hasibe Avci interviewed
BT does Anatolian tours of up to two weeks which means having to contact at least ten hotels, in the right order, according to the route. She sends the reservations, asks for confirmations, sends the lists and follows through during the tour.
Hasibe likes what she does and doesn’t think it is difficult. She says that it is important to keep everything on record at each step. That helps prevent misunderstanding and forgetfulness and if there are problems it is easy to refer to old correspondence to find where the misunderstanding happened. All correspondence and files about a tour are kept in the computer network in the office. This way everyone who needs to can have access to anything regarding the tours at any moment.
What would she do if there were no BT tomorrow?
She says her life philosophy is to live the moment as it comes and accepts what it brings along. She doesn’t make B plans, she does not worry about the future.
Hasibe worked in all the departments in BT; accounting, sales, transfers, and organizing tours. In 2006 she stayed one year in Antalya in the pursuit of a degree in fine arts, but as she worked and attended English courses, besides art training, she didn’t succeed in entering the university. Yet, she is happy in her work and does not regret missing school.
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