Will Seccombe has established his own public relations and consulting business for the tour and travel industry—Revolution Strategy, LLC—in the Tallahassee, Fla. area. Seccombe last month stepped down as president and CEO of Visit Florida after state legislators and Gov. Rick Scott criticized the agency’s million-dollar contract with Pitbull, a globally known rapper, to promote the state. Seccombe had held the top position for more than four years. Previously, he was Visit Florida’s chief marketing officer. (On a side note, Seccombe will serve on the NAJ’s eTourism Summit Advisory Council and will be presenting at http://labs.etourismsummit.com/.)
Svetlana Yazovskikh has been named executive director of tourism for the Philadelphia CVB. She succeeds Brian Said, who left the bureau last September to join Choose Chicago as vice president, global development. Yazovskikh was promoted from her position as the bureau’s senior international tourism manager. She joined the agency in 2008 as tourism services manager.
Brian Jorgenson has been appointed senior vice-president of product management for Sabre. He joins the Dallas-based Sabre from his post as senior vice president at Fiserv, a financial services technology consultancy that is also based in Dallas. In his new role, Jorgenson will be responsible for maintaining Sabre’s standing in central reservations and distribution solutions, while building upon the SynXis Enterprise Platform to expand Sabre’s property management, guest experience, retailing and loyalty capabilities for hoteliers.
The new Düsseldorf tour operator Anex Tour has appointed Carsten Burgmann will be responsible as sales manager for the entire range of the company’s products. A veteran of more than 25 years in the tour and travel industry, Burgmann most recently served as director of sales and marketing for VÖ Travel.
Oliver Schmitt is the new director of sales, distribution and digitalization for Cologne-based Eurowings. He joins the carrier from Teléfonica Germany where he was director online. Eurowings flies to Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando and, beginning July 11, 2017, Seattle/Tacoma.
Jay Reilly has been named vice president of corporate sales for Groupize, the hotel group booking platform. Reilly, who has been a business development executive in the hospitality industry for more than two decades, was most recently with AirPlus International, where he worked on global corporate payment solutions providing richer data for better travel supply chain management.
