Erica Doose

In 1978 I moved from South Africa and came to Chicago, Illinois to work as Executive Assistant to the Consul-General for the South African Consulate. I worked for the Consulate for 4 years and married a USA citizen in 1982, At that point I went to work in the travel industry -one of the reasons being a chance to go back home to South Africa to visit family. I started working for a small family business called Fun Safaris and arranged group photographic safaris for many of the zoological societies throughout the USA. I travelled with the groups to Africa approximately 3 or 4 times a year. In 1993 my children were young and I could not travel as much. I was offered the opportunity to join Abercrombie & Kent in Downers Grove, Illinois. I arranged custom itineraries to Africa for 2 years and then became Supervisor of one of the brochure tour departments handling Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America. I later joined Andrew Harper and was with them for almost 10 years selling all destinations but specialising in most of the unique countries throughout the world. I have been in the travel industry for 33 years and I am still as passionate and excited about traveling myself and sending my clients on exotic, once in a lifetime experiences.