Noemy Lloyd came to this country from Honduras for the first time when she was 18 years old. While visiting her brother, who was becoming a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., Lloyd remembers she nearly froze to death.
“I didn’t have any winter clothes, because I was from the tropics,” she said.
This travel experience was just enough to whet this adventure-seeker’s whistle. She said she has always been “curious of how things work on the other side of the world. When I read about a place,
I just have to see it.”
The Big Easy
Lloyd has lived in New Orleans for the past 45 years and has mastered the English language; she even dabbles in French thanks to her career in the medical records and publishing fields. Along with her full-time employment, Lloyd has been a group travel leader for 18 years, 10 of those as an independent contractor with Globus Tours, a tour operator whose journeys lead customers to destinations all over the world.
“My favorite part of the globe is Europe, and that is what I try to sell. I love Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Scotland, Wales — I’ve been fortunate to see nearly the entire continent,” she said.
Lloyd markets her dream vacations to a wide array of friends and past customers from the days when she worked at a travel agency. Globus assists with brochures.
“My adventurous spirit is contagious, and I enjoy selling travel. It has been harder since Hurricane Katrina, because people here aren’t as willing to travel. Katrina hasn’t deterred my desire to travel, perhaps because all I lost was my refrigerator, and that was only because I could not return to the city for three months.
“But for most of my customers, they don’t want to leave New Orleans during the hurricane season. October used to be their favorite time to travel,” she said.
Lloyd explained that she finds it a win-win job to work as a travel leader with a major tour operator.
Problem solver
“Sometimes suitcases are lost, and sometimes people get sick. I take problems as they come, but I’m a very outgoing person, and you need the kind of personality that customers can vent their frustrations and not take things personally.
“However, my group of 10 to 15 people is just part of a larger group of 40 to 45 travelers, and Globus, of course, has their own travel director on board, and that person really feels the weight of responsibility for any major bumps in the road.
“In the meantime, I get to travel with my old friends and new friends at a minimum cost.”
Lloyd already has six people booked for a 2010 trip to Vienna, Austria; Berlin; and Prague, Czech Republic, and is looking forward to continued European adventures if her customer base survives the current economic downturn.
In the meantime, is there any chance this 65-year-old travel leader will look to domestic travel or cruises to fill in the gaps?
“Absolutely not — at least not for now,” she said. “Cruises and domestic travel are for when you get too old to do anything else.”
