Jo Rzymowska: 'I'm not retiring – I want to give back'

A passionate proponent of inclusivity, Rzymowska’s business values are well-known throughout the industry, and were forged during her upbringing. Adopted by a German mother and a Polish father, she lost her maternal grandparents during the Holocaust, while her paternal grandfather and uncle died fighting the Nazis during the Warsaw uprising of 1944.

“Ours was an open house,” she remembers. “I was always told to take people for who they are, not what they are. It didn’t matter what background, nationality or ethnicity someone was.”

Rzymowska developed a love of languages, studying German, French and Spanish. “I used to say I worked in German, ate in French and drank in Spanish, and now I just drink in all of them!” she grins, with the playfulness that has come to typify her public persona.

“Never knowingly dull” is how she tells TTG she’d like to be remembered. “You get far more out of people if you have a laugh along the way.”

Life lessons

Her adventure to Nigeria as a schoolgirl to visit her aunt and uncle was among her most important early travel memories, and paved the way for her future career. “I was always encouraged to think of the world as my oyster,” she explains. “My parents’ philosophy was to enjoy life to the full. After everything they’d been through, they grasped every opportunity.”

She was also introduced at an early age to the world of business. Her father, an electronics engineer, designed walkie-talkies, which Rzymowska used to test at home. She would also help out as his PA, and attend meetings. 

“I still have a letter from Nokia offering to buy his company,” she recalls proudly. “He always gave me confidence and could spot I was interested. In a different era, I may well have got involved in the company. I say to young dads now – always, always encourage your daughters.”

His support would prove precious decades later when Rzymowska came out to her father a few years before making her sexuality known publicly – something she never believed would happen. “I couldn’t possibly envisage being out as a gay woman in business,” she says, but even in the early 2000s, her father still had his concerns.

“He was worried about me. He would say, ‘I know you’ll do well, but be careful you don’t make yourself vulnerable’. Now I hope he’d look back proudly on how far we’ve come and say, ‘yes, you can absolutely be who you are’.”

For Rzymowska, regularly named among the UK’s top LGBT business leaders, the benefits of “bringing your true self” to the workplace are invaluable – for both the individual and their colleagues. “When you’re always hiding something, it’s stressful,” she warns. “It’s a pressure that builds. Once that weight is off your shoulders, and the more you allow people in, the better it is for everyone.”

Entering the industry in the early 1980s, Rzymowska was the youngest rep in Majorca working for Harry Goodman’s Intasun. It proved a baptism of fire, from dealing with the aftermath of customer’s murder to helping a holidaymaker give birth suddenly in a hotel bathroom. “I grew up a lot and experienced things I never thought I would.”

In an era seemingly devoid of health and safety standards, when hotels were “somewhat dodgy”, Rzymowska’s formative experiences forged a deep-seated belief in always putting customers first and steeled her to handle whatever came her way.

Cruise control

Over the following two decades, she progressed into senior roles with Thomas Cook, Universal Resorts and Walt Disney Parks – while also dipping into the dot.com bubble at the turn of the millennium with Lawrence Hunt’s short-lived online package holiday specialist Dreamticket.com. “Our strapline was ‘stop dreaming, start packing’ and then when we closed it became ‘stop packing, start dreaming’,” she quips.

In 2005, she joined Royal Caribbean Cruises as director of sales and marketing, UK and Ireland – some move for a self-confessed “cruise rejector”. “Before joining, I had some of those same misconceptions we’re still trying to fight now,” she recalls.

Her maiden ship launch, Legend of the Seas, Royal’s first UK-based vessel, also took some getting her head around. “I didn’t see what all the fuss was about if I’m honest. Why homeport in the UK and not just sail straight to the sunshine?”

In 2010, now Royal’s general manager UK and Ireland, another launch would prove far more eventful when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, forcing the closure of European airspace and turning the industry showcase of Celebrity Eclipse into a full-blown maritime rescue mission.

Rzymowska came to the rescue of stranded British holidaymakers, and their travel agents, as she helped coordinate the collection of more than two thousand people from Bilbao. “When we arrived back in Southampton, there were Union Jacks flying welcoming us home – it was like after Dunkirk,” she recalls fondly.

This agility was called on again in the spring of 2020 as Covid reduced cruise’s busy vessels to ghost ships. Undeterred, it was the complexity of the global challenge that Rzymowska “relished” as she led her team.

It is with that same determination Rzymowska looks to her next phase, with a big part of her new focus on mentoring travel’s next generation.

’Long way to go’

So, looking back on her own career, what advice would she have given herself? “Get comfortable being uncomfortable,” she advises. “It’s important to push yourself. Early on, I stayed in my comfort zone too much. I had imposter syndrome.”

Helping others feel they belong in travel is still high on her agenda, with much progress to be made by businesses on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

“The whiteness within the industry is still a massive hurdle [and] there’s an awful lot to do on disability,” says Rzymowska. “If I think back to the 1980s – if we’d had conversations on the menopause, or mental health, people would have laughed at us.

“But if you look at travel compared with tech, finance or pharmaceuticals, we have such a long way to go. I don’t think enough companies are taking it as seriously as they should. I’ll have more time to work on that, and I’m looking forward to it.”