I am a Director of McComb's Coach Travel in Northern Ireland.

I carried out my Fellowship in 2004, when I travelled to Australia and New Zealand to examine the role of marketing in youth travel and tourism. I spent six weeks, based mainly in Sydney, visiting youth hostels, youth hostel organisations and tour companies, looking at the best ways to attract, and provide for young travellers, and seeing how we could use their experience and knowledge to make Northern Ireland a more attractive place for backpackers to visit.

My Fellowship was a real turning point in my career, and gave me the confidence to leave my job six months after returning home to join my husband full time in our coach tour business. Lessons I learnt during my Fellowship are still with me today, and I regularly consider the things I saw and did during that time when trying to market our business to young people.

Since becoming a Director of McComb's Coach Travel, I have helped grow our business hugely. Parts of my Fellowship helped me to go on to win the Chartered Institute of Marketing in Ireland award for Tourism Marketing in 2015. My Fellowship is something I will be forever grateful for.