Susan Stiner has been picked to run the new Orlando office of UK-based travel wholesaler JacTravel that the latter opened as part of its U.S. expansion plans. Stiner, regional head of contracting for the Americas, has four staff, although she is in the process of recruiting two more. Before joining JacTravel earlier this year, Stiner was with Radius Travel for three years. Before that, she was a regional vice president of product development for Tourico Holidays.
Collette Worldwide general manager UK, Peter Traynor, is quitting his job by the end of September. He has indicated that He added he will start looking for another job working with a tour operator at the end of October, after tending to other important business.
Phil Gardner has been named as the new head of merchandising for Thomas Cook UK and Ireland. He will report directly into commercial director Chris Mottershead and will focus on bridging the commercial functions of product, yield, retail and online. Gardner was previously at Tui UK, where he was general manager – commercial for Thomson and Island Cruises. Gardner replaces Rob Rospedzihowski, who was brought in by former chief executive Harriet Green from her former employer Premier Farnell two years ago. Rospedzihowski left Thomas Cook in April.
Four staff, including managing director Karen Gee, have been let go as a result of the closure of tour operator Journeys of Distinction as the latter—a one-time Kuoni brand—is folded into the operation of DER Touristik, which acquired Kuoni’s European tour operator apparatus earlier this year. While the Journeys brand will disappear, some of its tours have been integrated into Kuoni’s program of tours for 2016, Kuoni Journeys.
Neerja Bhatia has been appointed as Etihad Airways’ new vice president for India and the Sub-Continent. Ms Bhatia joined Etihad in 2004 as sales manager for Western India, shortly after the airline had launched its first flights to Mumbai. She was later promoted to the role of GM for India.
The management team in charge of Travel 2 and Gold Medal has been announced the hiring of Thomas Cook’s ex head of long-haul product, Matt Appleby. Prior to his tenure as head of long-haul product at Thomas Cook, Appleby was head of product for Thomas Cook Scheduled Businesses, which included the Gold Medal and Netflights brands. Before that, he was destination manager-North America, Caribbean and Pure Luxury for Gold Medal.
