Stephanie Dowling has been named deputy director of the Arizona Office of Tourism. As the new addition to office’s executive marketing team, Dowling will focus on the strategic development of the agency’s advertising, PR and communications programs. Dowling, who has nearly 20 years of experience in communications, public relations and advertising. Her CV includes a tenure as director of public relations and marketing for The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa in Arizona. In September 2013, she was named regional director of public relations for Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Hawaii. She was later promoted to regional director of marketing communications.
Dominic Tucker has joined low-cost carrier Norwegian from British Airways as UK head of sales. Previously Tucker had spent 14 years in a number of commercial roles at British Airways, including revenue management, alliance sales and account management. He also worked in consumer sales.
Oswaldo Freitas is the new regional director of sales for Latin America, JTB Americas, with the mission of bringing to Brazil the services of its receptive tour operator American TPI (Travel Plaza International). Founded in 1964, the JTB Americas is one of six JTB Corporation Japanese holdings in the world.
In an effort to increase its ExclusiveDeals business, Tourico Holidays has named Michael Deane as the new senior strategic product director, ExclusiveDeals, or pre-purchased hotel room blocks, currently make up 2 percent of Tourico’s global inventory, but account for 42 percent of the company’s revenue. Deane joined Tourico in 2009. In his new post, he will report to Dermot Quigley, the executive vice president of product development.
Tourico has also announced the appointment of and Bill Chambers as vice president, strategic product development. Chambers joined Tourico more than two years ago as a regional product director. He previously served for eight years as director of strategic product development for Hotelbeds. Chambers will also report to Dermot Quigley, the executive vice president of product development.
Christine Leader, a familiar presence at NAJ’s Active America China Summit each year, has left Great Wall Travel , which is based in the Greater Los Angeles area, to take on the job of marketing director for New Sun International Travel, which is headquartered in Commerce, California—also in the Greater Los Angeles area. New Sun is a receptive tour operator that brings visitors from Asia, with most of them (80 percent) from China.
This past Spring, Uschi Brunner, who had been with New World Travel for the past 15 years–most recently as director of groups and Incentives—became business development manager for CI Events, a strategic corporate event management company with operations in Australia, the UK and Hong Kong.
Thomas Cook announced early this week that Chris Mottershead is replacing Salman Syed as the UK managing director of the company. Syed is leaving to “pursue external opportunities,” the company said in a statement, adding that Mottershead is taking over Oct. 1, and that Syed will stay with the business until October 31. Syed has been in the position for just over a year. He joined the company in 2013 as managing director of Cook’s Western and Eastern European business. Peviously, Syed was managing director of Asia Pacific at First Advantage Corporation and prior to that he served in a number of roles at Premier Farnell Plc. Mottershead left Tui last March join Thomas Cook, originally as business development director, before he was promoted to commercial director in July. He began his travel career with Airtours in the early 1990s before joining Tui as UK managing director.
