Episode 258 - Theresa McDermott, ECT Travel Ltd. & Strictly Jane Austen Tours

Jun 23

Theresa McDermott, Founder and CEO of ECT Travel and Strictly Jane Austen Tours, joins Christine for this week’s soulful conversation. We are so grateful to Theresa and Strictly Jane Austen Tours for her collaboration in producing our Soulful Trailblazer Series!

Words of Wisdom

Media is so fragmented and you can get your information almost from a source that you want, really projecting a mirror image of what you want to see. Well, that isn't really learning about what's going on. That's just giving you a reflection of what you think is going on. Travel is very much about opening your eyes and just getting a different perspective.
– THERESA MCDERMOTT

Theresa is the founder and CEO of ECT Travel, a company based in Bath with worldwide operations, and the founder of Strictly Jane Austen Tours. She is a seasoned travel professional with over 40 years’ experience, starting with facilitating seamless group travel for over 25,000 customers traveling from the UK and Germany into destinations across Europe and culminating with today’s specialist, bespoke packages for customers from all parts of the globe. Active in her local community as well as regionally and nationally, Theresa is a former President of Bath Chamber of Commerce, Director of Future Bath Plus, Business West and UK Inbound. Theresa is currently a director of the regional tourism organisation, VisitWest, and Chair of the Bath Advisory Group. She also curates an annual series of “Phenomenal Women” lectures at YTL’s Gainsborough Bath Spa Hotel and is responsible for marketing the iconic and award-winning Thermae Bath Spa.

Strictly Jane Austen Tours was created in 2015 to provide in-depth immersive experiences for fans of Jane Austen, including Cosplay, film locations, and bespoke multi-day tours customized for guests.

We are so grateful for Theresa and Strictly Jane Austen Tours for their collaboration in producing our Trailblazer Series!

Theresa McDermott has spent over 40 years building a travel company rooted in the belief that the best experiences are designed around what people already love. As founder and CEO of ECT Travel, based in Bath, England, she began with group travel for more than 25,000 customers moving between the UK, Germany, and Europe, and evolved her work into highly specialized, bespoke tours. During her over 40-year tenure designing and building tours rooted in the belief that the best experiences are designed around what people already love, Theresa has always included mindful and thoughtfulness. Tours include experiences like quilting and textile workshops in India and the US, floristry and horticulture tours to the Netherlands, cultural and nature expeditions to Sweden, Singapore, Malaysia, and Borneo.

In 2015, Theresa launched Strictly Jane Austen Tours, a natural extension of her base in Bath, which is known as one of the most historically rich cities in England and a place deeply intertwined with Austen's life and work. Through immersive experiences ranging from Regency dance classes and cosplay to multi-day bespoke itineraries across Austen's literary and biographical landscape, Strictly Jane Austen Tours brings the author's world to life for visitors from around the globe.

The Soul of Travel Podcast Matters for Women in the Travel and Tourism Industry

Theresa’s connection to Soul of Travel is one Christine describes as a “fairy godmother” email at a time when the podcast is posed to expand our reach and looking for support from collaborators and partners. For Theresa, the path was clear because Soul of Travel’s values reflect her own. When she entered the travel industry decades ago, it was, as she puts it plainly, "a very macho world." Women were welcomed into customer service roles, occasionally deployed for their social capital in landing contracts, but rarely treated as equals in the rooms where decisions were made. "I was not treated as an equal," she says. "It was really only when I set up my own business that I felt — right, okay, I've done with that."

"We need to work hard to elevate women's voices," she says, "because we know that in lots of parts of the world, that is a very difficult proposition." Theresa has seen that difficulty firsthand — in India, where women are increasingly stepping into entrepreneurial roles in tourism, and in other destinations where they remain confined to front-of-house positions while the decision-making stays firmly elsewhere. Christine reflects on her own early travel career,. always the youngest woman in the room, often assumed to be there for administrative purposes, quietly gravitating toward the rare women on stage at industry conferences. A space like Soul of Travel is essential, and for Theresa, has become a chance to stand beside the kind of work she wishes had existed when she was finding her own footing.

What Makes Travel Meaningful

Theresa explains that she believes travel is fundamentaly for learning, actively, as we encounter a world that operates differently from the one we know. And when we travel, the deepest change happens when we are open to it.

She traces this conviction back to her own earliest experiences. She shares fondly that growing up in Bath, spaghetti came from a tin; the first time she had proper pasta in Italy was a revelation. French dressing in Switzerland tasted sharp and unfamiliar after a lifetime of ‘salad cream.’ Proper rice in the Middle East bore no resemblance to the version she had known. These were small moments, but they carried implications for Theresa in knowing that what we understand of a place, a food, or a culture is almost always a translation, and it’s best to seek out the original.

That philosophy shapes everything ECT Travel designs. Tours are built not around destinations but around existing passions — quilting, floristry, Regency history — because a personal connection to the subject gives travelers a lens through which they might engage more deeply with where they are.

In India, for example, quilting workshops reveal how the same craft carries an entirely different history, different materials, different construction methods depending on the region. In Sweden, time with the Sami brings forward a cultural inheritance that most visitors would never encounter otherwise. "When we're doing the cultural and nature visits," Theresa says, "it humbles you when you realize you really have no idea."

Her advice to women working their way up in the industry reflects the same philosophy of work without shortcuts. "You can't skate over it," she says, "because your guests will not get a great experience if you really haven't crossed the Is and dotted the Ts."

The Privilege of Designing Experiences That Leave an Impression

The personal connections are what drive Theresa to continue her work in meaningful travel. The moment a guest comes back with photographs, or writes to say that a particular tour was one of the most memorable experiences of their life, that encourages her to continue. Some guests have been traveling with ECT Travel for fifteen or twenty years. There are clients she knows by first name without needing an introduction, people whose lives she has accompanied through different seasons — from traveling as couples to, in some cases, taking the tentative, uncertain first steps of widowhood, joining a group tour because the idea of traveling alone after thirty or forty years of partnership is genuinely frightening.

"I've had numbers of conversations with ladies who are saying, 'Do you think it's going to be okay? Am I going to be all right?'" Theresa always says, “Yes.” When people turn to travel in these moments, they learn that they are capable of it, that they will not be alone in it, and that the experience will likely surprise them.

Designing travel, Christine reflects, is a creative and deeply personal endeavor. This is well beyond what most consider the job of a travel agent: transportation, itineraries, bookings. But both Theresa and Christine share that the real work is crafting of moments that travelers will carry with them long after they return home.

Jane Austen's Trailblazing Story — and Why She Still Matters

It was only as ECT Travel grew and Theresa became increasingly aware of the surging interest in Jane Austen from visitors around the world that she decided, pragmatically, that Bath's most famous resident deserved a closer look. She was surprised to learn that the world of Austen was far more than sweeping dances in stuffy ballrooms. Theresa realized that placing Austen in her historical context transformed the novels into something greater. The female characters in Austen's fiction were often as young as 18, navigating a world in which the window for securing their future was narrow, the options outside of marriage were bleak, and the social pressure to get it right was immense. "By the time you were 26," she reflects, "you were almost on the shelf."

What made Austen extraordinary in that context was not that she escaped those constraints, but that she wrote through them with a clarity and wit that made their absurdity visible to anyone paying attention, making this even more urgent to explore, especially in a moment that feels like another time of upheaval and change.

Join the Soul of Travel Community

Soul of Travel Episode 258 At a Glance

In this conversation, Christine and Theresa discuss:

· The impact that the Soul of Travel Podcast space has on creating a platform for women’s conversations in travel and tourism

· What makes travel meaningful for ourselves and others

· The privilege it is to design experiences that have an impact on the lives of others

· Jane Austen’s trailblazing story

Join Christine and Theresa McDermott now for this soulful conversation.

LOVE these soulful conversations? We rely on listener support to produce our podcast! Make a difference by making a donation on PayPal.

Related UN Sustainable Development Goals

SSustainable Development Goal #4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Sustainable Development Goal #9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Sustainable Development Goal #10: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Sustainable Development Goal #11 Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Sustainable Development Goal #12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Sustainable Development Goal #16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

Visit https://www.ecttravel.com to learn more and turn your travel dreams into reality.

Special thanks to Strictly Jane Austen Tours for your partnership in the production of our Trailblazer Series!

About the Soul Of Travel Podcast

Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.

Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.

We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.

Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts

Are you a Soul of Travel subscriber? Click here to subscribe to Apple Podcasts, so you don’t miss the latest episodes!

Listener reviews help expand our reach and help us rise up the ranks! Rate and review your favorite episodes on Apple Podcasts or your preferred podcast app.

Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). GUEST NAME (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.