This episode of Untold follows the early career of one of New South Wales’ best exports, Mr Andrew Hughes. Andrew talks extensively around some of the experiences and learnings that shaped his approach to business and indeed career. A recurring theme throughout is Andrew’s love of storytelling and the importance he places on it.
Andrew truly caught the travel bug as an 18 year old. Skillfully winning a place on a Rotary exchange programme, and financially supported by his proud pom parents with extra spending money from shifts at his local McDonalds, Andrew headed off to spend time in Northern Germany. During the early weeks of the exchange, the highlight of each day was the noise of the letterbox, triggering a Pavlovian-like response from Andrew as it meant fresh letters from family and friends had arrived to help combat his homesickness.
A post Uni exchange to Southern Germany was followed up with a full European Tour consisting of bar jobs as well as becoming a professional tour guide spinning yarns about some of Europe’s most prominent Cities before making it back home to Australia. Andrew also talks about how he almost became a Travel Presenter and a household name across the region – the tragic events of 9/11 putting the kai bosh on this. Australian TV’s loss was definitely hospitality’s gain.
Andrew talks about his early days as a hotelier with Best Western and how his career changed gears when he joined IHG Australasia in a business development role.
Then Dubai came calling – Andrew joined Atlantis Dubai and in this career defining pre-opening role was ideally placed to hone and develop his love of storytelling taking it to the next level. With Atlantis the Palm successfully positioned and launched, Andrew teamed up with Mike Scully at Seven Tides.
