May 2009 Archives

 

 

One of the most long-standing employees of Hebridean Island Cruises, David Smith, has been asked to rejoin the company as a business development manager for Hebridean Princess.

Smith, who joined the company in 1995, was an employee for 14 years, before being made redundant in April this year when Hebridean Spirit, the company's second ship, was sold. Now, Hebridean Princess has been bought by All Leisure Group plc and some original employees have been reinstated.

HF Holidays, the walking and leisure activities operator, has made a number of changes to its senior management team.
Steve Bishop has been appointed to head of finance. Bishop previously worked with Compass Group.
Matthew Humphreys is now head of sales, a new position in the organisation. Humphreys joined HF Holidays from Crystal Holidays.
HF Holidays has also just appointed Fraser Lord as head of hotel operations.
Finally, a new position of head of overseas and cycling holidays has been created for Steve Backhouse who has been with the company for 12 years. 

 

Amanda Matthews has joined Rock Insurance as non-executive director. As well as her role at Rock, Matthews is also managing director of luxury travel retail business, Designer Travel, and chairman of Training For Travel. Previously, Amanda spent 20 years working for Travelcare with responsibility for 370 branches, call centres, websites and a tour operation.

Choice Hotels Europe, part of Choice Hotels International, the group behind the Comfort, Quality, Sleep Inn and Clarion brands, has expanded its franchise development team in order to grow its UK business further.
Andrew Horder has been appointed franchise development manager for Choice Hotels Europe in the UK, with responsibility for growing third-party franchise agreements with independent hotels and hotel groups in the UK, a key part of its recently unveiled growth strategy.
Horder joins from Savills Commercial where he was a director responsible for advising on the sale, appraisal and development of a number of hotels, serviced apartments and other leisure properties both in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Amadeus has announced Tim Russell will be Stephane Durand's successor as managing director, UK and Ireland. Russell is currently managing director for Amadeus Australia and New Zealand, based in Sydney. He is expected to take over from Durand in the very near future.

The Tourism Society has appointed Gregory Yeoman MTS as membership executive.
Yeoman will be responsible for implementing plans to increase membership numbers and maintain the membership database.
Prior to joining the Tourism Society, Yeoman worked for The Adventure Company as marketing executive. He has also completed an 8000 mile cycle ride across Russia to raise money for charity.

 

Pumpkin Tours, an escorted adventure operator, has appointed Amy Rose as reservations manager.
Her role will include organising and co-ordinating events, processing sales and dealing with customer travel arrangements.
Rose previously worked as a travel trade assistant at Tourism South East.

TrekAmerica managing director Martyn Shapter is to take up a new position within TUI Travel PLC to help spearhead the group's small group touring and adventure businesses.

Shapter, who has headed TrekAmerica for 18 months, takes up the newly-created role of commercial director for TUI's Adventure division, embracing more than 15 brands, including Exodus, Quark, Peregrine, The Adventure Company, The Imaginative Traveller and Headwater.

The move follows TUI's acquisition earlier this year of Adventure Tours Australia (ATA), the Australian small groups touring business, which came under Shapter's TrekAmerica/OzXposure Group umbrella. It has now been decided to split this group in two, one part comprising all American operations, including TrekAmerica and Footloose, and for which a new managing director will be appointed. The other division will handle all Australian and New Zealand operations and is to be headed by Ken Hart, formerly owner and chief executive of ATA.

 

Heathrow Express, the rail service that operates between London and Heathrow, has appointed Richard Robinson as its new managing director.
Robinson joins Heathrow Express from tickex, a consumer internet technology company, where he was chief executive. 
Robinson has previously worked as the operations director for a UK subsidiary of Anglo-American.

 

Abbey Thomas has joined Kiss Flights, the flight only company, as its new national sales manager. Thomas will be responsible for trade relations and growing sales for the seat only operator.

 

The Freedom Travel Group has announced the appointment of Diane Court as sales and recruitment manager for Midlands and the South.
Prior to joining Freedom, Court spent several years as national account manager with Gold Medal, and for the last two years she was key account manager with Virgin Holidays.

Inghams has announced the appointment of Keith Francis as product director.
Francis will take up the new position at the end of July and joins Inghams from the Education Travel Group, where he is currently the group winter sports and marketing director. Francis will be taking responsibility for overseeing the running and development of Inghams' product range including Ski, Lakes and Mountains, Self Catering. 

Choice Hotels International, Inc. today announced that it has named Michael Murphy senior vice president of global sales, where he will have responsibility for the company's worldwide sales and intermediary marketing efforts. Murphy most recently served as senior vice president of sales for Marriott International, Inc. In his new role, Murphy reports to Chris Malone, chief marketing officer.

Carsten Schieck, general manager, Conrad Maldives Rangali Island has been promoted to the newly created position of regional general manager, Maldives, for Hilton Hotels. The role will see Schieck responsible for all Hilton's operations under its family of brands in the Maldives.
Currently Hilton operates the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island and will open the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort and Spa on July 1, followed by the addition of the Beach House to the Waldorf Astoria Collection in November and the launch of Doubletree Hilton Malé, in 2011.

Travel industry wholesaler Destinations of the World (DOTW) has appointed Kieran Tobin as the general manager of its European business, based out of its London office.
Since his appointment Tobin has expanded the European team. Senior management appointments include Paul Davis as head of sales and Joe Parente as head of product. Davis most recently held positions with Transhotel and getabed.co.uk. Parente most recently held positions with Transhotel and Gullivers Travel.

Maria Whiteman, consultant director of The Holiday Team for the last four months, has announced that she is moving on to become chief executive of directline-holidays.co.uk. 
She said: "I was brought into the Holiday Team on a short term contract at a time when the business was accelerating its growth into the mainstream holiday market."

Rebekah England has joined flight and holiday specialist The Holiday Team as regional sales manager for the south and south west.   
She was previously trade relations manager for Hoseasons and before that was sales executive with Medhotels.com
In her new role she will be responsible for developing a new business strategy and working with key retail partners in the south to promote The Holiday Team brand and service and secure new commercial deals.