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Manchester, United Kingdom — 22-25 September 2009WYSE Archives
Industry Legend Award, and the winner is….
Congratulations to Janet McGarry, YHA Head of Marketing, named Industry Legend at the Adventure Tourism Awards on the Gold Coast.
Janet first joined YHA New South Wales as Marketing Manager in the early 1990’s and was very successful in the role.
After taking maternity leave she was contracted as Managing Editor of the new magazine Backpacker Essentials which she launched as the national YHA publication.
Later she re-joined YHA’s staff in 2008 as Marketing Manager and as YHA merged the former state YHA associations that role evolved into her position today as Head of Marketing of YHA Australia. She has been a strong leader for the national marketing team and the organisation as a whole, with an impressive skill set and contributions beyond her role as a marketing professional.
Outside of her position with YHA she has been an effective advocate for the youth tourism sector and has worked closely with state and regional tourism boards across Australia to keep backpacker related issues at the forefront.
Janet is a quiet achiever and has worked tirelessly to support the youth tourism sector. She has represented YHA internationally and is highly regarded by Hostelling International as one of the most experienced marketers in the organisation. In 2018 she convened the Hostelling International Asia Pacific Marketing Forum in Sydney, and spoke for the youth tourism sector on a panel at the Mumbrella Travel Marketing Summit. YHA’s Senior Marketing Executive Perrine Mignot was there to witness Janet’s starring role on the panel.
„Janet gave great insights, practical tips and jokes about Expedia and Accor, which made everyone laugh and made the session lively (they wanted to escort her out at the end),” Perrine reports. „She was definitely bold! I heard many people talking about it afterwards, they will remember her and YHA. A job excellently executed!”
Janet is an expert on the Australian working holiday scheme and has prepared submissions in support of its growth from small numbers originally to over 200,000 visas issued per annum. (Janet first came to Australia as a working holiday maker herself).
She has judged the NSW Tourism Awards and been an active member of an association to promote the Pacific Highway travel route.
She has sat on Tourism Australia’s Youth Tourism Industry Committee providing key insights into the backpacker industry and general youth market in support of their marketing initiatives. Having been so heavily involved in the youth tourism sector for many years, she has extensive knowledge of the sector and has lost none of her passion for what she does.
Source: The Byte / YHA Australia