HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry

Tom Valley has been named travel industry sales director, North America, at Visit Orlando. He joins the organization from SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, where he spent more than 14 years, serving in different managerial positions, lastly as corporate director, national sales and strategic alliances. Additionally, Freddy Bi has been named travel industry sales manager for Europe, the Middle East and Asa for Visit Orlando. His experience includes tenures at China Travel Service (USA) and the Pechanga Resort and Casino.

Darragh Flood has been appointed to G2 Travel’s Western U.S. team as destination manager, hotels. He will handle product development and contracting for central and northern California, the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii and Alaska. A 20-year veteran of the tour and travel industry, Flood joins the company from Destination America (The Travel Corporation), were he was product manager.

Scott Phelps has announced his retirement from his position as president and CEO of the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau. For, Phelps, 65, this is his second—and apparently last—retirement announcement. He first retired as CEO of the Greater Hartford CVB in 2010, after working at the organization since 1977. He had a change of heart, however, in 2012 when the relatively new Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau sought him out to lead the bureau when then president Michael Van Parys retired.

Skyline‘s Belo Horizonte-based team has announced the appointment of a new commercial manager, André Dentzien. He will work in the branch in Minas Gerais, inaugurated in April 2014, aiming to strengthen the company’s relationship with customers and suppliers. He was previously manager of businesses and people Rio de Janeiro branch for Prime Consolidators.

Nikita Jankowski has been named marketing director for Destiny USA, one the largest shopping malls in the U.S. She joins the attraction from Visit Syracuse, where she was communications director for nearly five years.

Tobias Neumann has been appointed joint managing director of the TUI premium club Robinson. He will be responsible for sales and marketing, pricing and trading, and operations. Neumann has worked for TUI since 2004 in various positions and will assume the role alongside his existing responsibilities as director, distribution, TUI Hotels & Resorts, which mainly covers international distribution activities for the three brands Robinson, TUI Blue and TUI Magic Life.

TUI UK & Ireland has appointed Toby Horry to the newly-created role of director of brand marketing and content. Horry will take responsibility for the brand marketing and content teams when he starts on Nov. 19. He joins TUI UK & Ireland following three years at Tesco, where he was most recently customer propositions director and, before that, digital marketing director. Previously, Horry spent nine years at the agency Dare, where he was managing director and worked with notable global brands such as Vodafone and Barclays.

CORRECTION: In the Oct. 11, 2019 issue of the INBOUND report, we erred by mis-identifying the ownership of the receptive tour operator AlliedTPro. The owner is Thomas Cook India, which acquired AlliedTPro last year as part of a deal in which it announced its acquisition of the Kuoni Group’s destination management businesses worldwide. INBOUND regrets the error.