Recent Alumna Speaks to The Unique Challenges of Working Remotely for a Travel PR Agency
By: Milcah Solomon
From sports, entertainment and fashion public relations, there are a multitude of industries that get the spotlight. However, travel public relations work goes unnoticed despite the perks.
Alexia Saucedo graduated from Michigan State University in 2023 and has kicked off her career as an account coordinator post-grad at the Decker Royal Travel Public Relations Agency. Although her academic journey brought her into the field of public relations, she started out at Michigan State University studying biology with switches to marketing and creative advertising. Finally, she settled in as a public relations major, in which she finished her coursework.
“Overall I feel like I had a really fulfilling and enriching experience despite that half of it was online because of COVID-19,” said Saucedo.
Throughout her time at MSU, she worked with VIM Magazine. Saucedo’s several fashion and beauty public relations internships made her switch to travel PR unique. The biggest learning curve was navigating the different ways to pitch a product. Saucedo had to distinguish the techniques of pitching in fashion and beauty public relations to pitching a human experience, in travel public relations.
In her current job, she is pitching an Alaskan Cruise instead of pitching earned media placements for the latest beauty fad. Rather than pitching the unique qualities of a specific product, her pitches had to include the special qualities of the brand and the experience overall.
Decker Royal will send journalists on these trips for their clients in return for media placement. Saucedo says this makes it easier to build relationships with journalists, but this comes with the risk of sometimes being “ghosted.”
“That is where you see the relationship works both ways … they [journalists] will attend different trips for different clients and wrote a piece of coverage for this client but didn’t for us [Decker Royal]. Sometimes it’s a tango,” said Saucedo.
Even with the fast-paced nature of the job, Saucedo says she finds the perfect balance with her ability to work in her own comfort.
“I quite literally can work from anywhere in the world. I just need my laptop and I need to be on from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST no matter where I am,” said Saucedo.
Saucedo prefers the freedom and flexibility that comes with working remotely, as she has become well-versed in remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She says while it can sometimes it can be hard to feel connected, she found her team communicating constantly, eliminating any feelings of isolation she previously had.