If you know Julia Buisán, you know that the verb bored is forbidden. She is passionate about her work and about people. Customer service and client relations are her domain, which she masters like a true ringmaster.
How long have you been an account manager?
I started working very early. I am 29 years old and have been working professionally for seven years. I started in Benidorm at the Hotel Sol Pelicanos Ocas and later at Hoteles Palafox as a wedding and event planner. I saw that I liked this field and I specialised with a master’s degree from the University of Granada. I think that the Tourism degree orients you and gives you the opportunity to know what you want to do, it’s like general knowledge, but then you have to continue training in what you are interested in. I love events and communication, so I did a master’s degree.
In that master’s degree we had to do an internship, and since I had already worked for Meliá Hotels International in 2013, thanks to ETUZ, I was selected to do the internship there and today I’m still there.
You are working on the Costa del Sol; do you like the sun and beach concept?
I love the possibility to do things, to move and to grow and also the good weather! These big hotels offer you the opportunity to do big events. At the Meliá Costa del Sol we have 400 rooms, which are full in the summer and offer few opportunities for events, but in the winter the occupancy rate drops and that’s where my department comes in. I have also worked in the mountains, in fact, one of my first jobs was in Sierra Nevada, right by the ski slopes, organizing conference events. And now I’m going to explore another area, because I’m starting in Ibiza, as sales manager of the ME Ibiza Hotel , one of the hotels that belongs to The Leading Hotels of the World. The truth is, I love a challenge.
We can tell you are delighted with your company
SAt Meliá employees are really well looked after, and the company encourages them to build a long-term career within it. There are opportunities for promotion, movement… but not only for certain departments, but for all employees! For example, with the new opening in Ibiza, any chambermaid who wants to move here and is already working for Meliá can do so. I love being around people, and working for a company that takes care of its employees gives me real peace of mind.
For someone like me, young and eager to do things, this kind of company opens so many doors.
How did you get here?
TWorking. If there is one thing that characterises my career, it is orientation and work. I started with the tourism course at ETUZ by doing internships: tourist information, receptionist, hostess… a thousand things. And what I discovered through these internships is that I love dealing with customers. I love reception, which is one of the most reviled jobs in tourism. When someone wants to put you down, they say: “You study to be a receptionist, but have you ever worked in a reception? Do you know how complex and satisfying it is to take care of the traveller? I believe we need to give more recognition to certain tourism professions that are far from easy.
Once I knew what I wanted to do, I concentrated on it and threw myself into it. In 2013 I worked as a receptionist at Meliá in Benidorm, then at Samba Hotels in Lloret de Mar, also in reception, and from there I moved to Palafox Hotels as an event organiser. My advice to tourism students is to make the most of all the opportunities that ETUZ offers with its internships. You can get to places you wouldn’t be able to go on your own and make a career out of it.
In your job, the use of languages is essential.
Yes. And this is something very good that the School of Tourism offers. I studied English and French for 4 years, which are the basic languages to be able to get around in the workplace. In my daily life I speak more English than Spanish. And I even started to study Chinese, which I have put on hold with the change. You have to be open to new languages because the world is very big, our country is the second largest in the world in terms of visitors, and also because it is fantastic to be able to communicate with other people.
Look, I have a story about something that happened to us at the hotel. A group of Russians came to stay and we mistakenly gave a lady an all-inclusive card. Usually, Russians come with a guide because they don’t usually speak languages, but this group didn’t have one. We had to change the lady’s card and we tried to communicate in every possible way: English, French, German, Spanish… even sign language. It was completely impossible. We ended up giving her the new one, removing her old card and cutting it up to show her that it was not going to work. The lady started crying her heart out and we had to wait for one of our colleagues at the reception, once again the blessed reception, to explain to her what was going on. The lady thought we were kicking her out of the hotel.
What does the future hold for you?
I don’t know, but I will keep working for the client and who knows, maybe outside Spain, a challenge I haven’t faced yet.