Will Seccombe, former president and CEO of Visit Florida, has been named president of the Connect Travel division. Connect Travel is the leisure tourism division of Connect and serves as a strategic marketing partner offering a full suite of digital, social, content activation and cooperative marketing solutions for destinations. A veteran of more than 25 years in the tour and travel industry, Seccombe headed Visit Florida for nearly five years before his dismissal last December after state legislators objected to the funding of several of the agency’s ventures, including the use of a famous rapper whose video promotion was deemed by some to be a little too racy.
Gillian Young has been named the new executive director of the Visit USA Committee in Ireland. Gillian has nearly 30 years’ experience in the travel and tourism industry, and has specialized in the U.S. market for 23 years with American Holidays.
Luciane Leite has been named the new director of WTM Latin America, the relatively new trade show that was launched in April 2013 and held most recently last month in São Paulo. Leite, the former manager of the event, succeeds Lawrence Reinisch.
David Holder has announced that he is leaving his post as president of Visit Syracuse after 10 years to join Jones Lang Lasalle as vice president-tourism. He’ll be based in Syracuse. Previously, Holder was director of tourism & business development for Fredericksburg, Va. For nearly three years. Prior to that, he served as executive director of the Steuben County (N.Y.) CVB.
Renee Areng was voted out of her job as executive director of Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast last week by an 11-4 vote of the organization’s board of directors. Areng, who came to the organization on Aug.1, 2014, did not have her three-year contract renewed. Instead, the board extended it until Sept. 30, which meets a required four months’ notice needed to end the contract. Areng came to Visit Mississippi Gulf Coast from her post as executive vice president of Visit Baton Rouge, where she served for 12 years.
Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold chief executive John Boulding is scheduled to retire later this year. Boulding has been with parent company The Travel Corporation for 33 years. The Travel Corporation’s brands also include Trafalgar, Contiki Holidays and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection. Boulding will remain with escorted touring specialist Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold to help with the transition to new chief executive Ulla Hefel Bohler.
