PHOTO: © CIE TOURS

THE BASICS
Name: Stephen Cotter
Title: Managing director
Company, city: CIE Tours; Dublin, Ireland
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A truck driver; my dad and uncle owned trucks, and I was a big fan of Smokey and the Bandit!
Fun fact about yourself: I share my birthday with my mother … according to her, the best present she ever received.
If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go and why? The Gili Islands in Indonesia … a beautiful Robinson Crusoe place with no vehicles, white-sand beaches and colorful coral.

A LITTLE BIT MORE
What two nonessential items would you want if you were on a deserted island?
A driver and a few thousand golf balls!

What person or experience most influenced your choice of career?
My mother. She owned a furniture shop, and through her I was first introduced to the world of business. Watching her work taught me what it means to be commercial, how to create value by buying and selling.

What is your favorite song, and/or who is your favorite musician/band?
“Sympathy for the Devil” by the Rolling Stones … I’ve been lucky to see them live a few times, and I love their energy and longevity.

If you had a time machine, would you travel to the future or back to the past? Why?
With the world so connected now and everything at the tip of your fingers on a phone, I’d love to go back a few hundred years to see how simple life was when your world was just a 5-mile radius.

THE BUSINESS
How would you describe your leadership style?
Inclusive … You’re only as good as the team around you. I’m blessed to work with a great team at CIE Tours; they’re creative, passionate and energetic. They make me look good, which isn’t easy!

What predictions do you have for the travel industry over the next year?
I think we’ll get through the current challenges okay. There are always ups and downs in travel, and we roll with the punches. If we survived COVID-19, we can survive anything. Honestly, going on a trip is the best thing you can do; take a break from all the negative news.

What is your or your team’s proudest professional achievement?
Successfully expanding our destinations to include Iceland, Italy and Spain; we’ve increased our repeat business, and our customers and teams love these destinations.

What project are you currently working on?
I’m currently exploring how AI might influence our business in the next few years and ways we can leverage it to grow the business. With AI developing so rapidly, it’s important we don’t fall behind!

AS A TRAVELER
What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned about customer service? Naturally, staff need to be professional and competent, but what customers really remember is a warm, genuine welcome. A big smile goes a long way.

What’s the first vacation you can remember taking? Our family vacations were always to Glandore, a small coastal village in West Cork. We’d spend our days mucking around in boats, catching crabs and jumping off the pier. The trip there was 250 miles, but it took us about 10 hours as there were no highways. Picture my parents and five siblings in the car, towing a trailer with our bags and bikes … we must have looked like The Beverly Hillbillies!

What are your travel pet peeves? I’m fussy about my pillow — nothing ruins a trip faster than a bad night’s sleep.

Share your favorite travel experience: Taking a helicopter ride to view the Twelve Apostles along the Great Ocean Road near Melbourne was an amazing experience!