Running With Suitcases Featuring Marriott Executive Diana Plazas-Trowbridge: 'Let's Go Together' Season 2, Episode 20
Courtesy of Diana Plazas-Trowbridge
If you're reading this we know one thing to be true about you: You love to travel just as much as we do.
Though the idea of travel has changed a bit over the last year, it hasn't changed our outlook on how important it is to get out, experience the world around us, and celebrate what makes us all unique.
We're honoring the return of travel — whatever that may look like to you — with new episodes of our podcast, Let's Go Together, which highlights how travel changes the way we see ourselves and the world.
In the first season, our pilot and adventurer host, Kellee Edwards, introduced listeners to diverse globe-trotters who showed us that travelers come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. From the first Black woman to travel to every country on Earth to a man who trekked to Machu Picchu in a wheelchair, we met some incredible folks. And now, in our second season, we are back to introduce you to new people, new places, and new perspectives
On this episode of Let's Go Together, Edwards sits down with hospitality executive Diana Plazas-Trowbridge, the chief sales and marketing officer for the Caribbean and Latin America at Marriott. Diana shares her experiences working in the hospitality industry, stories from her journeys in Central and Latin America, and her childhood dreams of travel.
"I think that the first sign that I had that I would love travel is from being a kid. I grew up in Colombia, South America, not to be confused with so many of the Columbia cities across the U.S., and every New Year's Eve, we have lots of different traditions, whether it's eating 12 grapes or putting stuff behind the door or whatever, but for me, when the clock struck midnight at New Year's Eve, I would run around the block with a suitcase, because that was supposed to say that you are going to travel a lot more that year ahead," Plazas-Trowbridge shares of her own entry point into her love affair with globetrotting. "So, every year as a kid, you would see me with my suitcase, dragging it around the block, and now my family actually jokes that they have to lock the suitcase in the closet on New Year's Eve because of how much I travel."
As for what's next in the industry, Plazas-Trowbridge says she just hopes more women get involved at every level.
"I feel like sometimes, people don't think about entering the hospitality industry, and I would love for more women to enter because you can do pretty much everything. You could do sales, you can do HR, you can do finance, you can do operations, you can work in food and beverage, so I think... go ahead and look for it," she says. "Look for those opportunities in your local hotel or if there's a regional office, or a cluster office, or an airline in your market that is hiring. Definitely take a look at it."
Ready to hear more advice from Plazas-Trowbridge? Listen as she shares it all on Let's Go Together, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Player.FM, and everywhere podcasts are available.
