The unique challenge of keeping up with New York pace!

Once you arrive in New York the first thing you will notice is that people are in a “running mode” most of the time. I do not mean running in parks due to healthy lifestyles or training for marathons but running in every avenue or street in Manhattan 24/7 since this is indeed a city that claims to never sleep. Moving forward I realized the New Yorkers walk with speed because otherwise, it will be hard to get things done in here. If you are a newcomer it will take a while to get familiar with subway lines and connections to Manhattan and other boroughs like Queens, Brooklyn or Bronx. Especially during late nights or weekends where the lines change and there are long delays stored for you to get used to. Your best friend who will welcome you to New York and show you around is definitely Google Maps. Witnessing people who stop in the middle of a block to find the right directions on their phones is part of my daily routine. Efficiently shortcutting in Manhattan or other boroughs is one of the most useful tools that Google map provides for cities like NYC. 

I can write even longer about the experience as a newcomer in NYC but I will switch to another subject and shortly describe my wonderful professional work experience in the first 2 months in the US, and how it immediately had a reference to the fast pace lifestyle that characterizes this intense city. 

I arrived in New York approximately 10 days prior to my first fellowship day to get settled and adjusted before starting the work. I was and still am delighted to have had the opportunity of attending a 6 months fellowship at Travel Edge a luxury-focused travel agency in North America with thousand expert advisors. The offices are located in the very heart of midtown at 42^nd street, Lexington Avenue, just across the Grand Central Station a world-famous Landmark of Manhattan. I decided to visit the offices on Wednesday even though my program started the next Monday. 

I felt lucky to be welcomed by a very warm friendly team and I was surprised to be provided with my own office with a gorgeous view across Lexington Avenue. I was asked by my supervisor whether I would like to start on that day and I immediately replied with 0 doubts YES since I was very excited and positive about this work environment. The New Yorkers’ mindset of not losing any second seemed to have gotten into me so I decided to start right away my professional experience at Travel Edge. Right away I got access to the ADX platform (Agent Digital Experience) a dashboard that accesses multi GDSs, CRM, accounting, reporting, and merchant processes. In the upcoming days, I was launched into several initiatives to learn more about several aspects of the travel industry in general and the travel agency business in more detail. 

My professional background consists on the international tourism but the knowledge I gained in these two months here really expanded my vision and added major value to my growth overall. Experiences like participating in a Client Base project to make the company’s marketing coding of clients more consistent for all branches, completing several training modules on Virtuoso (the largest sales and marketing partner for luxury travel worldwide) and other training processed were really developing and worth it. As times passed I was more exposed to the financial results of Travel Edge Corporation to get a better understanding of related businesses. I have to admit that I am surprised and grateful to get this level of trust and this opportunity from my supervisors to work on tasks as a full-time employee and a real part of the team. 

Representation is truly an honor and I have been very excited to participate as a Travel Edge representative in different events. I have been an active part of the hotel site inspections, the suppliers’ in house events, business meetings with our partners and vendors as well. I attended the SKIFT industry conference to learn more about new travel trends and meet with the experts on travel and representatives of different companies. Also attending the New York Times Travel Show-the top travel industry retail and supplier events of the year in North America was truly a blast.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to AADF for this great professional opportunity and life-changing experience. I am looking forward to the next great 4 months at Travel Edge and I really wish this article serves as an inspiration to future generations of fellows to applying to these kinds of opportunities and getting the most out of them!

Ladi Hoxha