Rachel-Jean Firchau, Trailblazer Award Finalist, creates content as Rachel Off Duty to help other women better navigate the delicate line between work and play.
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- 5 minute read
Every year, the Bessie Awards celebrate the people and companies who are shaping the future of travel for women. Hosted at WITS Creator Summit, Wanderful’s annual gathering of travel creators and industry leaders, the Bessies recognize women making an extraordinary impact across the travel ecosystem—from entrepreneurs and storytellers to innovators and community builders.
The awards honor Bessie Coleman, a pioneering figure in aviation who was the first Black and Native American woman to hold a pilot’s license. Like Bessie, the finalists represent courage, creativity, and leadership that push the travel industry forward.
The 2026 Bessie Awards will take place live on Saturday, May 30, at The Chattanoogan Hotel in Chattanooga, Tennessee, during the WITS Creator Summit.
As we prepare for the Bessie Awards celebration in Chattanooga, we asked Rachel-Jean to introduce herself and share a bit about her strategy for balancing work and travel.
Tell us your story! How did you find your way into the travel industry?
I fell into the travel industry through curiosity and serendipitous accident.
My passion for balancing work and travel helped me find better alignment and purpose in my 9-to-5 job. When I was an account manager in advertising with an overwhelming workload and salesperson, I began to feel the stress of burnout. Then, I was inspired, I to apply my experience working with travel clients as a content creator to pitch a new role in my company. When I proposed working exclusively with our travel clients, the risk paid off. I went on to help grow travel into one of the fastest growing and highest revenue categories at my company.
Growing up in Hawai’i, with a large family spread across the Philippines, Australia, and the mainland, I’ve traveled for as long as I can remember. I’ve always felt drawn to learn about the world outside my tiny island home. Then, in my 20s when I was working and making my own money, I developed an intense need to travel solo. At the same time, I began working with tourism clients and learning the ins and outs of the industry.
I loved sharing my travels online, but meshing my love of travel with my growing corporate career was a struggle.
Eventually, I realized I wasn’t alone. Many people have a hard time taking enough time off after they enter the workforce. That is why I decided I would figure out to balance work and travel in my career and share what I was learning.
Along the way, I’ve seen and done nearly all, from almost getting fired for flexing an unlimited PTO policy to work-from-home fails. Eventually, I was able to leverage personal travel experiences to advance professionally. I moved to a position where I could give up my apartment and work anywhere around the world. Now, I create to help other women better navigate the delicate line between work and play. That’s how Rachel Off Duty was born, to teach how to balance work and travel.
I continue to support the travel industry both as a creator and as a marketer. Travel has basically become my whole life, both on and off duty.
I loved sharing my travels online, but meshing my love of travel with my growing corporate career was a struggle.
Rachel-Jean Firchau
What motivates you to do your work today?
I am motivated by the idea that travel has so much potential, both to help and to harm.
I am constantly thinking about where to go next and how to experience as much as possible. Going somewhere new absolutely thrills me, and I love challenging others to move outside of their comfort zones.
At the same time, I am always thinking about the impact of all of this movement—on the environment, on the people, and on the places we visit and leave behind.
Stories have the potential to shape how we see the world, how we move around the world, and how we treat it. This nuance drives how I think about the content I create and how I consult with my travel clients.
What is your proudest career accomplishment?
As a creator, my proudest accomplishment is working successfully with clients whose values overlap with mine. Just a few of the many pieces I’ve been lucky enough to bring to life thanks to my great clients:
- Promoting responsible tourism in Hawaii
- Showing how to workation in Czechia
- Creating awareness around a women-run antipoaching operation in South Africa
As a marketer in corporate America, I am proud of all the risks I’ve taken over the years. I’ve proven that loving to travel, pursuing hobbies, and taking time off simply to rest aren’t mutually exclusive with being good at my job. In fact, the more I’ve done these things and the longer I’ve been a creator on the side, the more success I’ve found in the 9-to-5 world. And being able to inspire others to take similar risks is my favorite accomplishment of all.
Many people have a hard time taking enough time off after they enter the workforce. I decided I would figure out to balance work and travel in my career and share what I was learning.
Rachel-Jean Firtau
What does it mean to you to have the community nominate you for a Bessie award?
It is a huge surprise and honor! This community is full of incredibly talented and generously supportive creators who put me in awe. To be recognized as a finalist for my work in inspiring people with careers to see the world reinforces that I am on the right track. I am very grateful for the support.
What do you think are the most important issues facing the travel industry today?
One of the most pressing issues is that places are surging in popularity and demand faster than the infrastructure and regulation needed to support that growth responsibly. Too many places struggle to cope with overtourism, irresponsible visitation, crowding, erosion, real estate inflation, and displacement of local people. These issues could be solved with better regulation and planning, and especially with less greed.
We see too many places struggle to cope with overtourism, irresponsible visitation, crowding, erosion, real estate inflation, and displacement of local people.
Rachel-Jean Firtau
Another pressing issue is unfortunately a byproduct of social media and advertising. Our industry can inflate travelers’ expectations about what places ‘owe’ to visitors. We call places paradise, we show off picturesque aesthetics, and we manicure the experiences we share with others. We are often guilty of perpetuating the idea that travel can be perfect when in reality, it rarely is.
As storytellers, we need to work harder exploring nuance. We must show places as more than pretty backdrops. Most importantly, we need to expose the real people and situations that lie beyond the manicured walls of social media.
What’s next for you in your career?
I plan to go deeper in my work as a career-and-travel-focused creator. At the moment, I am on a DIY sabbatical or career break in my 30s. I recently quit my full-time job to live out a dream of moving abroad. Career breaks are still a pretty foreign concept in the USA, especially for people in their 30s and up. My Instagram series “Going For the Gap,” along with other creative concepts planned for the year ahead, sheds light on this and other topics related to reclaiming the balance between work and travel.
I am also working on my Certified Destination Management Executive (CDME) credential. This certification demonstrates ability to be a leader in the tourism industry. When I graduate in 2026, I plan to apply this education to my work as a creator and tourism marketing professional.
What do you envision for the future of the travel industry?
In my work toward CDME certification, I’m researching how the travel content creator industry should, and inevitably will, evolve in the next few years. Travel continues to change in the post-pandemic world. Tourism boards are shifting away from a purely promotion-based model toward a vision that’s centered in stewardship and long-term sustainability. My hope is that the creator industry evolves to meet this need.
I dream of the day that responsible, nuanced storytelling informed by diverse voices and perspectives becomes the rule, not the exception.
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