Isha Gulati graduated in 2017 with a B.S. in Hotel and Tourism Management and concentration in Tourism Development from the Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality. She is currently a Project Manager at Egencia, the business travel brand of Expedia Group.
What has your journey been like after graduating NYU?
Upon graduating from NYU, I joined Expedia Group in the Lodging Partners Services team as an Account Executive. I worked primarily with vacation rentals, bed and breakfasts, motels, and small boutique hotels to optimize their Expedia Group’s listings, enhance their revenue management, and set marketing strategies. After about one year, my role shifted into a split of managing accounts and managing projects. After two years, I decided I wanted to try something new and pursue a full time project management role. I applied internally to Egencia and have now been a Project Manager for the past year and a half!
Can you talk about your current role at Egencia?
Egencia works with companies to power and digitize their corporate travel. My role is to help brand new clients get set up in our platform and help them customize our tools for their needs. That being said, my world turned upside down when COVID-19 shut all travel down. Rather than helping companies travel more, our clients were coming to us for aid on cancelling all booked travel. As a result, my job pivoted immediately into helping our clients track all cancelled tickets, airline credits and vouchers, and financial reporting. Since most companies have halted all business travel, I’ve worked with my leadership every quarter to pivot my responsibilities, so we can focus our attention on the most impactful problems to solve.
What are you passionate about in the work that you do?
I’m incredibly passionate about bringing a lens of Inclusion & Diversity into every part of the work I do. I partner frequently with our full time Inclusion & Diversity team and other colleagues to examine where the company has opportunities for improvement. This work involves open and honest conversations, active listening, and gathering around our central purpose: to bring the world within reach, reflecting the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our employees, customers, partners and communities.
In what ways has your NYU experience had an impact on your career and shaped who you are today?
NYU has had a profound impact on who I am today. I loved being part of one of the largest and most diverse student bodies in the U.S. while simultaneously being part of a small cohort of Tisch Center students, where I knew all of my classmates. The specialized business degree in Hotel and Tourism Management made for a seamless transition to my full time role with Expedia Group upon graduation. On top of this, the emphasis that NYU has on the importance of diversity of thought, experiences, and backgrounds directly contributes to my work at Expedia Group building inclusive travel products and services.
What career advice would you give to NYU students?
Take advantage of office hours and network through your professors. The tourism industry moves at such a fast pace that textbooks can’t keep up with the latest trends, but your professors certainly do!