NEW JOS FOR VATELIENS: Ana Sofia now is Director of La French Liaison. Read about her previous position as Deputy Director of the Paris Office at Mexico Tourism Board.

Ana Sofia, a Mexican and a Vatel France 2009 alumnus, transformed her final internship into her first job and then climbed the corporate ladder until she reached the position of Deputy Director of the Paris Office at Mexico Tourism Board. 

A legendary country, heir to mysterious civilizations, sporting multi-colored festivities on its high plateaus and tropical forests on its river banks: this is Mexico, the 9th country in the world visited by international tourists.

It’s no wonder that Ana Sofía Díaz Durán, a Vatel Nimes 2009 alumnus, promotes her country.

“During my first internship, in Saint-Tropez in 2007, I discovered that jobs in hospitality, even though they were really interesting, attracted me less than tourism in its globality,” explained the young lady.

Two internships at the headquarters of the Mexican Tourism Promotion Council convinced her that she was right. And her last internship turned into a job.

Ana Sofía started working as a Junior Manger, in charge of monitoring the assembly and organization of the Mexican pavilion in the various international tourism trade fairs. After that, she had a mission in New York with the Council, and then was promoted to Assistant Manager in Paris, in the summer of 2014.

Here, a very small team is in charge of “selling” Mexico as a destination for tourists to professionals from France, Monaco, Benelux and Morocco.

“Our partners are tour operators, travel agencies, and airlines. We link them up with various Mexican players in tourism. Each year we organize seminars, in different cities, where hundreds of professionals in tourism meet up with a few dozen Mexican exhibitors,” she explains.

With this professional project, Ana Sofía is sure that she will work for a long time “serving people from my country through its economic development.”

And she’s really happy she chose hospitality as her specialization: “To promote tourism efficiently, you have to know everything about the industry.

My education at Vatel taught me all the different kinds of work there are in hospitality. With my internships and today in my professional life, I can see that the entire profession knows that Vatel students know how to work efficiently.

From the very beginning, Vatel makes everyone want to do their best. Its curriculum gives us the tools that help us get out of our comfort zone and push our limits.”