Deborah Mayer

When I Joined ETA & What I Love About Working Here

I first worked for ETA as a tour guide in 2009 and transitioned to a full time operations position in 2011.

Professional Background

Deborah has been a tourism professional for 30 years, exclusively in the group tour industry and is proud to have worked for Educational Travel Adventures for over 15 of those years, first as a tour manager and in 2011, retiring from life on the road and pivoting to a full-time operations position.

She began her professional career while still in college, working in the entertainment industry. Her first job at age 20 doing continuity and research at a long-running television soap opera led to positions in broadcast news, sports and a hit situation comedy. Segueing into the music industry, she had a series of roles at notable companies including Sony Music, Radio City Music Hall and the Columbia House Music Club, where she wrote copy for the club magazines sent to members.

It was during that time that she was invited to guest lecture classes in NYU’s Music Business and Technology department, which lead to her teaching two upper-level undergraduate courses in that program. During the six years that she was part of the NYU adjunct faculty, she created a new course curriculum focused on the live music industry and through her contacts, helped place some of her students in advantageous internships. All along, she was an avid traveler and helped friends plan their vacation itineraries, in the pre-internet days. In 1996, she decided to make a complete change and began her third career, this time in the travel industry. Her first job at an international tour operator required a huge step back but it wasn’t long until she flourished. She also started her own tour company specializing in shopping tours in Europe.

Over the years, Deborah’s role at ETA has adjusted to adapt to the demands of a growing company and her niche is hotel operations. She prides herself on securing the perfect property for each group and finds that even in her personal travels, she’s constantly looking at hotels she happens to come across, wondering, would this work for one of our groups? More than once, her own experience led to a property where future ETA groups would stay. And once a year, she comes out of tour manager retirement to travel with a much-loved long-time ETA client she first worked with in 2011 and still loves watching the joy in students faces when they experience something exciting and new.

Fun Facts About Deborah

Interesting Facts
I’ve traveled to 45 US states and nearly 50 countries on five continents; I’m a published author and worked on a hit television show; I’ve appeared in four music videos; I was in Studio 8H for over 100 episodes of Saturday Night Live.

Favorite Place Traveled:
London, for theater, pubs and all my lovely friends there; Paris, for shopping and wine; Australia, for wildlife (koalas!); Saint Petersburg for a bucket list museum (Faberge!); Japan, because even cheap sushi there was amazing; Florence, for food and outlet shopping; Cape Town for seafood and penguins (but not together! Seafood on the plate, penguins on Boulders Beach).

Favorite subject to study in school:
Drama, because I was a theater geek.

Most Recent Passport Stamp:
France.

Most unexpected moment while traveling:
Over a lovely dinner at one of my favorite Amsterdam restaurants, my friend and I learned our flight to Luxembourg the next day was cancelled. Realizing there were no available flights for days, we raced back to our hotel in the pouring rain, frantically checking trains and buses, watching the available options quickly disappear.

We ended up on a long-distance train… then a local train, reminiscent of NYC-area commuter rail… then yet another long-distance train. It was a long day of schlepping luggage, train station snacks, pay-to-pee bathrooms and many thoughts of “are we there yet” but eventually, more tired and bedraggled than we would have been after a one-hour flight, we made it to our destination.

Window seat or aisle seat?
I like to look out the window. And since I don’t need leg room, I save the aisles for those that do.

Dream destination (not yet visited):
Antarctica. My bucket list is all seven continents.

Go-to travel snack:
Marks and Spencer reduced sugar wine gums. Oddly specific, I know, but I stock up on them when I’m in England. I have a terrible sweet tooth and they have just the right amount of sweetness and chew. And no, they don’t have wine in them!

One thing I hope students gain from traveling:
The world is a fascinating place full of interesting, diverse cultures. Your life can be so enriched by getting out of your comfort zone and exploring someplace new.