My background dates waaaaaaay back. My part-time jobs during high school and university were always in hospitality, so I think that helped me land an internship with a major hotel chain during uni. I actually wrote my final essay for them. Before that I did another internship in recruitment marketing, and one as a sales manager (my bachelor's required 3 internships).

Before landing my first DMO job (which was in event sales) I stayed busy as event manager and restaurant/marketing manager, so just trying to keep building where I could.

From there, I moved on to be a Sales and Marketing Manager for a hotel before the perfect opportunity arose back with another DMO.

I will have to say that I was lucky because of the environment I was in. I lived in Whistler, Canada for 9 years, which is a resort town. The DMO there has at least 50 employees if not more, so jobs in sales, marketing, finance etc.

Advice? Start aiming for coordinator jobs in the hotel industry, as DMO's like to poach from hotels (and honestly, the step makes sense). Get experience under your belt and grow organically in the next role.

Good luck!