Dnata has appointed John Taker as its purchasing director. Taker joins from Kuoni/GTA where he was vice president, sourcing. Previously, he was purchasing director at Virgin Holidays for more than 10 years. Taker will be responsible for dnata travel’s global buying strategy, excluding Europe.
Christopher Barrett has returned to the travel and tourism industry as the new president of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. He comes to the position from his job as executive vice president and chief operating officer at Target Media and Digital in Harrisburg, Pa. Previously, he has been president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Dutch CVB. Barrett succeeds Carl Wilgus, who retired after nearly nine years in the post; previously, Wilgus had served as state tourism director in Idaho for more than 20 years. Barrett gained nationwide attention in the midst of the 2008-09 Great Recession when, referring to year-on-year tourism business trends, he said that “Flat is the new up.”
Rafael Galeto has joined the B2B team at the Brazilian operator Grupo Trend as a sales manager, as the latter strengthens its travel agency service team in the state of Paraná, just south of São Paulo. Galeto, who has 13 years of experience in the industry, will report to the South Regional sales manager, Daniel Moser.
Sofia Michel joined Paris-headquartered Hcorpo as a business developer, charged with expanding the portfolio of key accounts from the Paris-based global company—its U.S. offices are in New York—whose B2B reservation platform works with 400,000 hotels. Michel, who started her career at the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce in Boston, has held several sales management positions in the Europe/Middle East/Africa, North America and Asia-Pacific markets for Concorde Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt and FRHI Group.
Randy Fiveash, director of the Connecticut Office of Tourism, has been named chairman of the Discover New England board of directors for 2017-18. As chairman, Fiveash will be tasked with increasing global awareness of the region as a four-season destination; helping New England businesses reach international audiences and expanding tour operators’ familiarity with regional attractions. Fiveash has been Connecticut’s tourism director since late 2008.
Copa Airlines has announced the appointment of Emerson Sanglard as its new general manager for Brazil. He’s spent the last four years in charge of the company’s marketing department for South America—this is In addition to 22 years of experience in companies such as General Motors and Petrobras.
In the UK, Cosmos Tours & Cruises has re-launched as Cosmos and announced a totally new website with an agent booking portal. The “Cosmos” brand name was originally used by the company’s former parent, the Monarch Travel Group, for its mainstream holiday program, but the group decided to drop the brand and rename its holiday operation Monarch last year. Cosmos Tours & Cruises subsequently gained the legal right to use the name.
