Today is International Women's Day (March 8) and we are celebrating all the amazing women who are part of the Living Tours family.

Sexism is still very much alive and strong today and we need to challenge the gender bias still rooted a bit all over the world.

I introduce you here part of our Leadership team - Living Tours in the feminine, to mention they are part of our leadership team, merely and entirely due to their merit of proactivity, competence, honesty, leadership skills, empathy, adaptability, among many others.

Rosa Silva

Rosa has a degree in tourism and postgraduate in marketing management, she started her career in Living Tours in 2013, coming from an international career in a multinational company, she was hired in a coffee shop at Stansted Airport in London by me, I automatically realized the potential, her drive and will to win, in overcoming problems, with ease, but very professional, an excellent manager of human relations.

She started her role in the foundation of our DMC, Destination Management Company - Porto, having also worked in the role of Human Resources Management, in support to the Board, mentor of our Summer Parties, excellent moment of team relaxation that usually take place on a cruise on the Douro River in early summer in Porto.

She also performed roles of commercial leadership, organization and participation in international fairs and workshops attended by Living Tours.

Currently is part of the Executive Board of Living Tours and holds the Leadership of Living Tours Online, our B2C and B2B platform for Tours, Activities and Experiences in Portugal and Spain.

Carla Costa

Carla has a Tourism Degree, she joined Living Tours in 2012, she came from the Association of Business for the Development of Cultural Tourism in Porto and the Region - ATC, Porto Tours, currently ATP - Porto Tourism Association, she started her career with the foundation of Living Tours Lisboa, having moved her life from Porto to Lisbon, which shows well her ability to win and leadership.

Initially she only led the in-person receptive with our Tourist Service agency - Lisbon, and later headed and founded our DMC, Destination Management Company - Lisbon.

She also performed HR leadership roles, management support and commercial leadership in the organisation and participation of international fairs and workshops, attended by Living Tours.

In 2019 he welcomed another challenge in Living Tours, returned to Porto to lead a new department - DMC, Groups & Events Portugal.

She is currently a member of the Executive Board of Living Tours, and has a new role as Chief Sustainability Officer.

Tânia Monteiro

Tânia joined Living Tours in 2015 for a 9-month Professional Internship, newly graduated in Tourism in our inbound agency - Tourist Service, Porto.

She quickly showed her leadership potential and professionalism, as well as the drive to succeed and ambition for new opportunities.

After the internship and given her skills and abilities, she automatically joined the Livingtourian team, either in the face-to-face service of our guests, or in the reservations of Tours and Activities in Porto.

In 2017 she was invited to lead the department - Reservations and Tours & Transfer Operations, which she has performed in an exemplary way, with a lot of drive and dedication, with a total disposal for the difficult task that is managing a department like this.

Currently she is a member of the Executive Council of Living Tours.

Cátia Castro

Cátia is a true human relations manager and a born leader! She joined Living Tours for a professional internship just like Tânia and we soon realised her attributes of proactivity, professionalism, responsibility, and leadership.

In 2017 she was invited to lead our in-person receptive agency Tourist Service - Porto, which she accepted immediately and has been growing an excellent job, with a team that is always united, motivated, and surpassing the goals and results every month and every year! A true Livingtourian inspiration.

Currently also a member of the Executive Council - Living Tours

Sofia Carvalho

Sofia is an excellent Public Relations professional with an affable, friendly, and fun charisma. She has a degree in Management and came from the education area, leading a school - Nursery School, with previous leadership experience in the insurance business area.

Her potential lies in the empathy she creates with all the people with whom she relates to, the ease of relationship and sympathy she creates is natural and innate.

Joined the Livingtourian team in 2016 in the commercial leadership of the hotel units in Porto and is currently a member of the Executive Board - Living Tours.

Claudia Pedrosa

Claudia joined Living Tours in 2009, as an interpreter-guide, her university degree, having joined the Livingtourian team just after completing the National Interpreter Guide exam.

I learned later, through a colleague and high school classmate of Claudia's, that she was the best student in school and that would visualise her as a doctor and not an interpreter guide, an area she dedicated herself to because it was her passion and she felt like a fish in water. I say this because I have escorted several tours over these 10 years and each one was always better than the other, pure truth.
 

She is an exemplary professional, with a path of continuous improvement in the performance of her duties, and always exceeding the proposed goals. Very attentive to detail with our guests, experiencing a tour with Claudia is always charming, always in a good mood, but detailed so that everything turns out perfectly.

She started her career in guided tours in 9-seater vehicles, having easily embraced tours or group guided tours in minibuses and larger buses, being a true master and inspiration in Living Tours.

Since 2015 she has been the leader of Living Tours' Guide Interpreter & Tour Experts Training and is currently a member of the Executive Board - Living Tours.

Mariana Silva

Mariana joined the Livingtourian team in 2017, she comes from the hospitality business area in Madrid - Spain, she was interviewed and hired via skype/online, even before the pandemic - covid19.

She moved with munitions and baggage to Barcelona, which demonstrates her ability to adapt, for the newness and the embracing of new challenges.

She joined the DMC of Living Tours Spain in Barcelona, having held the position for 2 years, with great professionalism, commitment, dedication and always available to take care of our guests in Spain even out of hours or weekends.

With the covid-19 pandemic, we had to restructure teams and departments and Mariana moved to lead the DMC Spain department and is currently a member of the Executive Board - Living Tours.

Ema Silva

Ema is another one of those 5-second clicks of LivingTouriana hiring. At an event of an online tour operator in Porto, and in a moment of networking we exchanged a few words and given the conviction, enthusiasm and drive shown by the sector and the work performed, a LivingTourian element of high potential was instantly detected.

Ema joined Living, to develop and implement our new Living TukTuk business area, as Project Manager, having developed the entire project and undertaking her business area in Living. This project was very well planned from the beginning and has shown positive results since the first year of activity. Subsequently, in August 2023, she developed a new business area for Living Cruise, Party Boat, which was a tremendous success.

Yet another superwoman, department leader with proven evidence that women make great leaders.

Margarida Romão

Margarida is yet another success story at Living Tours, she joined the company to do a professional internship in customer service at our face-to-face receptive agency in Lisbon, having finished with distinction, but by her own will she went to look for new learning in other areas within the tourism. But he also left a mark on Living Tours of having high potential to lead a project, for example.

After the covid-19 pandemic, and due to a reorganization of the sector and Living, naturally the position of Manager of Living Tours Lisbon became available and we invited Margarida to lead it, having accepted immediately and the results have been fantastic, super leadership, and with equally very good results.

Elisa Ferreira

Elisa joined our Leadership team because she had grown up enough and felt comfortable accepting a leadership role. She realized that in the company where she was working there was no such possibility in the short term and decided to look for a new challenge in the market where he could develop himself.

She applied for the post of Human Resources Director at Living Tours and from the first days he realized that he wasn't here to play, but to lead the Resources department or Human Resources as we like to call it with determination.

It has been a pleasure to see Elisa's leadership work of extreme professionalism and dedication to the LivingTouriana cause.

Manuela Azevedo

Manuela joined Living Tours for a position as a collaborator at DMC Portugal, demonstrating in the interview that she also had great potential to become the leader of a department. This possibility came about two months after joining the company, as the leadership of DMC Portugal embraced new projects within Living and Manuela started to lead the DMC Portugal department, developing a fantastic job and the performance and growth of the department prove all the potential he showed in the first interview.

Manuela is an excellent member of the team given her international experience, where she worked and lived for 3 years in the United States of America, adding new perspectives and visions of the business with her experience in the American market and in the Luxury events area, a new area that we are developing internally in the Living Tours group.

These are our LivingTourian leaders, a true source of inspiration in the feminine and we hope we can show that leading in the feminine is good for companies and for humanity, in fact they are the true generators of life in the world, in all senses!

Millions of women throughout history have had to cry, bleed, protest, and fight for the right to vote and other rights that unfortunately had to be won.

Fortunately, because of your strength, bravery, commitment, fearlessness, and determination, you never gave up. Humanity is much better off because of your struggles and achievements.

Happy International Women's Day to all Women of the World!