Key U.S. Destinations Hit by Thomas Cook Shutdown
The Sept. 23 shutdown of UK tour operator Thomas Cook has sent out ripples and waves worldwide, affecting millions who had scheduled travel packages using the failed operator. Its impact has been direct and measurable for some destinations, including the United States—it is the number one long-haul destination for British travelers—and, in particular, Orlando.
As reported by Travel Daily News, 38 countries have been affected by the operator’s failure, especially in Europe, and more than 8.6 million flight seats will be canceled from the time of the closure until end of August 2020, according to the last flights programming (for the period September 1, 2019 –August 31, 2020) announced by the company at the beginning of September
Reacting to the news, Mabrian Technologies, a travel intelligence firm based on the Spanish island of Menorca that monitors tourist dynamics globally by cross-analyzing Big Data from multiple sources, has measured the effects of the shutdown by tallying the number of seat flights disaggregated by country and specific destinations or airport.
Meanwhile, We’ll Have to Wait for Another Key Number: September 30 was to have been the deadline for UK tour operators to renew their Air Travel Organizer’s License (ATOL), which the UK’s Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) uses, in effect, as a hedge for consumers against operator failures, guaranteeing that UK international holiday makers will be flown home if there is a failure.
Instead, the deadline for granting renewals to companies that have not had their licenses renewed has be extended to Oct. 25. Even so, firms seeking renewal still had to make their application for an ATOL by September 30.
Head of licensing operations for ATOL, Michael Budge, said: “Given the exceptional circumstances and redistribution of our internal resources at the CAA to support the repatriation effort [in the wake of the failure of Thomas Cook], we have taken the exceptional decision that all licenses that have yet to be granted will now have the license period extended until October 25, 2019 to be approved.”
For observers and analysts of the UK’s tour operator industry, the semi-annual renewals are a measure of how the industry is doing, with revisions to annual ATOL totals followed closely. Because Thomas Cook, the Number 3 operator on the ATOL/CAA list, will be gone, it will be interesting to see if other top operators have increased their license numbers … or not.
To view the INBOUND table based on the most recent ATOL list six months ago, visit: https://www.inboundreport.com/2019/04/16/the-top-50-tour-operators-in-the-uk/
It Seems Certain that 2019 Inbound Traffic to USA Will Decline vs. 2018
Latest NTTO Figures not Encouraging: The collapse of the UK-based tour operator Thomas Cook on September 23, 2019 generated scores of side stories about the legacy of the company, and it also helped to put the finishing touch on an already cloudy picture for the inbound tourism industry’s outlook for 2019. Here are some of the data-driven reasons why:
—The outlook was already less-than-bright early last month when the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Trends Index told us that international inbound travel had contracted once again in July, falling by 1.2 percent. That decline followed a disappointing June performance which saw the sector’s six-month trend fall below zero for the first time since September 2015. Also, the Leading Travel Index (LTI), the predictive component of the TTI, projected that international inbound travel growth will remain negative over the next six months (-0.4 percent).
—This was before the shutdown of Thomas Cook, which regularly sent more than 50,000 visitors a year to the United States, according to its entry in the profiles of international tour operators that delegates to US Travel’s IPW trade show. Meanwhile, Mabrian Technologies, a travel Intelligence company, said its study of the data showed that Thomas Cook had more than 330,000 seats set aside for travel to the United States from Sept. 1, 2019 through Aug. 21, 2020. How many of those seats will be replaced with seats on other carriers?
—The latest arrivals numbers posted late last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that overseas arrivals to the U.S. increased by only 0.8 percent for the month of August (vs. the same month in 2018) and was up 1.8 percent, year-to-date, for 2019 vs. the same period in 2018. And these data did not take into consideration, of course, the demise of Thomas Cook.
—Finally, while the 1.8 percent increase so far this year may seem encouraging, the industry is also facing the prospect of a second consecutive year of decline from China. And year-to-date arrivals totals from the key markets of South Korea and Brazil are down. German arrivals are up by less than one percent.
Young Chinese a Major Presence in Nation’s FIT Market
China outbound is a very fragmented market, a recent news report from China Travel News (CTN) tells us, but young Chinese travelers is always a very important segment for overseas tourism operators. “It is because in general, this is the segment that not only they travel, they travel free and independently,” the report emphasizes, “and we can reach them online.” Using fresh numbers from Trustdata, CTN notes that, during the first half of 2019, post-90s (those born from 1990 to 1999) young users who made hotel reservations have surpassed post-80s for the first time. And post-90s together with post-00s, they comprise 46 percent of the total online hotel bookers. Says CTN, “The potential for the post-00s is huge and will increase as well.”
The new report pointed out that, at the recent China International Tourism Industry Expo in Guangzhou, there are more than 500,000 visitors, and more than 200,000 of them were less than 30 years old, according to a CITIE estimate.
###
And, from Hotelbeds, there is This Note on the Chinese Market: Here is an update on the top international destinations for Chinese travelers during the seven-day Chinese National Day holiday period, which began October 1:
—According to Hotelbeds’ booking data for this year’s break, five of the top ten international destination countries of this year are Asian and the other five are Non-Asian – with the list topped by Thailand and followed by, in descending order, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
—In 2017 there were only two non-Asian destination countries – the United States and Italy – in the list of the top 10 China outbound destinations. In 2018 that number increased to four – the United States, Italy, France, and Spain – and this year the number has increased to five.
—Chinese travelers are also travelling to a wider range of countries, with Chinese bookings through Hotelbeds for 113 different countries during the National Day holiday period, up from 106 in 2017 and 111 in 2018.
Case Study: While U.S. Numbers Decline, San Diego Taps into Alipay and Fliggy to Grow Chinese Tourism
From Jing Travel: “Against the backdrop of falling Chinese tourist numbers and increasingly hostile bilateral sentiment, Brand USA and San Diego Tourism Authority are taking matters into their own hands. Brand USA, the organization dedicated to trumpeting the virtues of an American vacation to a global audience, made its intensions clear in late August by announcing mega pop star Jane Zhang would front its China-facing “Feel the USA” campaign. Its latest partnership involves San Diego Tourism Authority (SDTA), Alipay, China’s foremost digital payment platform, and Fliggy, Alibaba’s online travel agent platform.” For the complete article, click here.
OAG Ranks Most Internationally Connected Airports
Developing a Multi-Country Itinerary? Check here first. Just released by OAG, recognized as the authoritative source or airline and airport data, the OAG Megahubs Index 2019 reveals the 50 most internationally connected airports in the world and the 25 most domestically connected airports in the U.S. (Above: London Heathrow, the most connected airport in the world.) While the international list points to London Heathrow as the most connected and Frankfort, Germany as the top two, Chicago O’Hare comes in at No. 3, with other major U.S. airports coming in at Numbers 8, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 31, 37 and 44.
The index is generated by comparing the number of scheduled connections to and from international flights with the number of destinations served from the airport. OAG’s Megahubs Index gathers its schedules database to dynamically build connections through a dedicated analytics platform, Connections Analyzer, and is further enhanced by OAG’s MCT Exception Table.
The index considers all connections which are feasible between scheduled flights adhering to the airports’ own Minimum Connect Times, which can be made within a six-hour window of a flight arrival and where at least one is an international flight. At Heathrow there are over 65,000 possible connections on the busiest day for aviation and while the Megahubs Index score for Heathrow is slightly below where it was a year ago, the airport continues to perform well ahead of the competition.
The index considers all connections which are feasible between scheduled flights adhering to the airports’ own Minimum Connect Times, which can be made within a six-hour window of a flight arrival and where at least one is an international flight. At Heathrow there are over 65,000 possible connections on the busiest day for aviation and while the Megahubs Index score for the airport is slightly below where it was a year ago, Heathrow continues to perform well ahead of the competition.
While there are many ways to rank the top airports in the world, the OAG Megahubs Index reflects both the scale of the airport operation in terms of destinations served and the number of inbound and outbound flights, as well as the fundamental scheduling which makes some airports such successful hubs. In some instances, schedule co-ordination, which ensures waves of inbound flights are timed to provide the maximum connectivity to outbound flights is key, while for other Megahubs, the sheer scale of the domestic operation and how that connects to international air services is what drives international connectivity. The above and other factors are scored, and OAG comes up with its ranking.
A Further Note on Methodology: For its list, OAG has calculated the total number of all possible connections between inbound and outbound flights within a six-hour window, where either the inbound, outbound, or both flights are international, at the largest 200 airports in the world (based on total scheduled seats in July 2019) and at the largest 200 international airports (based on total international scheduled seats in July 2019) on the busiest day for global aviation over the 12 months to July 2019.
—For the purposes of this analysis, in addition to the in-built business rules within OAG Connections Analyzer, the following customizable criteria were chosen for all operating flights:
—Single international* connections only to/from the chosen airports;
—Maximum circuity of 150;
—Minimum Connection Time (MCT) varies by individual airport. OAG holds the MCT information for every commercial airport in operation; and
For additional information, visit: https://www.oag.com/oag-megahubs-2019?submissionGuid=04d02353-e993-4bcb-abc3-7eaa8b7e2a54
A Conversation with Will Seccombe
A veteran travel and tourism industry leader, Will Seccombe is president & managing director of Connect Travel, which provides a wide portfolio of events and resources (including the INBOUND Report) that support and serve the industry. He recently took part in a panel discussion hosted by the ONE Travel Conference on Shopping, Dining & Cultural Tourism that focused on the future of such events for the travel trade. We had the opportunity to talk with Seccombe about the subject and what follows are excerpts from that conversation.
INBOUND: You just completed participating in a panel discussion on “The Future of Travel Trade Events.” With so many other media and channels of distribution available for travel suppliers and buyers to transact business, why is it so important that face-to-face meetings and the events that facilitate them continue to be a part of trade events as we have come to know them?
Seccombe: It might seem a bit counter-intuitive with the explosion of technology and so many new ways to communicate, from social media to live video conferencing from your phone, but I believe that face-to-face interaction is more important now than ever before. I especially believe in the intentionality of pre-scheduled one-on-one appointments like we have at Connect Travel Marketplace, the RTO Summits and Active America China. In the craziness of our hectic daily schedules, e-mails get missed, calls all go to voice mail and just lead to the game of tag, but when you know that you have 10- 15 minutes to sit across from a partner and look them in the eyes, you build relationships that last and those relationships lead to business. This model works for new business in all markets, even when there can be a language challenge.
While is stands to reason that a one-on-one meeting is a great opportunity for new business, because of the power of human connection, we find that it can be even more powerful to have an intentional, scheduled meeting with a long-time partner. It is great to catch-up over a drink at the bar, but the scheduled appointments drive focus of the time together.
INBOUND: As far as inbound travel to the United States is concerned, are there any markets or regions in the world for whom the in-person trade event is especially or particularly important … and why?
Seccombe: Following up on the previous question—Brand USA has shown how important it regards the trade show for the European market by announcing at its very first Brand USA Travel Week last month in London that it has already scheduled the next six editions of this event—through 2025—at different destinations in the continent. What should we make of this?
The Connect Travel team participated in the inaugural Brand USA Travel Week and we were very impressed with the programming of the week and the attendance of both European buyers and U.S. suppliers at the show. Again, a great opportunity to sit down face to face in a manageable environment to build relationships and grow business.
INBOUND: Connect Travel now has six events that focus on inbound travel and tourism to the U.S.—RTO Summits in Los Angeles, New York and Kissimmee, Florida, Active America China, Active America China The Receptive Edition, as well as another Florida-based trade show, the Connect Travel Marketplace. So, are you able to give us any kind of “state-of-the-market” assessment regarding the condition of the Visit USA product based on what you’re picking up from those who are coming to these events?
Seccombe: I am very bullish on the long-term outlook for international inbound travel to the U.S. I do believe that the U.S. travel industry is coming off of 10 years of solid growth and that these past few years it has been pretty easy growth. It is hard to find a North American destination that is not reporting annual record visitor numbers. There will be a bump in the road and the industry is going to have to work harder and smarter to grow business and market share. We feel that the Connect Travel events will be well positioned as the best alternatives to efficiently and effectively build international business.
INBOUND: You have two events this month in San Francisco. One of them, the eTourism Summit is 20 years old and fairly well known in the travel and tourism industry. The other, the Connect THRIVE Summit, is a first-time event. Where do you see THRIVE heading in the future?
Seccombe: The Connect THRIVE Summit is focused on community development through LGBTQ travel, sports and entertainment. We are featuring an amazing roster of speakers including Anderson Cooper, two Olympians, Fred Dixon from NYC & Co, Joe D’Alessandro from San Francisco Travel and Leah Chandler from Discover Puerto Rico—as well as representatives from US Travel, Brand USA, IGLTA, ITB, USTOA, LGBTMPA, PFLAG Canada, and the U.S. Cultural and Heritage Marketing Council. Like the international inbound events, the Connect THRIVE Summit will feature pre-scheduled one-on-one appointments between destinations, resorts, attractions, media, marketers, tour operators, meeting planners and sports rights holders. We are very excited about the program and are looking forward to announcing our 2020 Host destination next month.
Send your WTM Selfies to us!
Going to World Travel Market Next Month? INBOUND wants you to be one of our photographers!
How? Simply e-mail your WTM selfie to our managing editor and we’ll include it in our photo coverage of WTM in our next issue of INBOUND.
Important: Be sure to include the name, full title and company/affiliation of each person in the photo. (If you wish, Include location, if off-site.).
And we reserve the right to cut, crop and otherwise make photos better. E-mail your selfies to tom@tomberrigan.com.
US Travel Looking to Re-up Brand USA
It’s been about 10 years since the U.S. Travel Association wrapped up the most significant lobbying effort of the organization’s history and got the U.S. Congress to passed legislation that created the Corporation for Travel Promotion (DBA Brand USA). After it did so and the bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama, the association has had to stave off attempts to deauthorize the agency. A little more less five years ago, in December 2014, US Travel was able to persuade Congress to reauthorize the organization for six years.
And now they’re at it again. The current authorization for Brand USA expires at the end of Fiscal Year 2020, on Sept. 30, 2021. The government relations staff of US Travel has already been active on Capitol Hill. Bills have already been in the House and Senate to extend the life of Brand USA for another six years—H.R. 3851 in the House and S. 2203 in the Senate. It helps to have companion versions in both Houses, just in case the legislative process bogs down in one chamber; as such, US Travel can engineer the process better with bills in each chamber. And both bills have bipartisan backing.
But U.S. Travel said in a recent posting, “more work remains to be done and we are calling on our membership and the travel industry to act now.” It points to three ways to get involved:
- Send an Action Alert to your representative and your senator encouraging them to co-sponsor H.R. 3851 or S. 2203, demonstrate the importance of Brand USA to their committee leadership, and renew Brand USA this year.
- Write an op-ed for your local newspaper touting the benefits Brand USA delivers to your community. Find examples below and reference our sample op-ed as you draft yours.
- Engage on social media using the hashtag #RenewBrandUSA to both encourage your member(s) of Congress and join the conversation on the importance of this program. Our social media guide can get you started.
- If you have plans to meet with your member of Congress, reference U.S. Travel talking points for key messages, stats and asks.
Here is a link to the House bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/3851
Here is a link to the Senate bill: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/2203
If you want to contact your U.S. Representative, here is a directory of contact information: https://www.house.gov/representatives.
And if you want to contact your U.S. Senator, use this link: https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm
Also, here is a general number for contacting both the House and Senate: 202-224-3121.
The Life of Brand USA—A Timeline
—2009: Bills are introduced in both the House and Senate that would create a national Corporation for Travel Promotion a public-private partnership tasked with promoting tourism in the United States.
—The House passed its version (H.R. 2935) by a voice vote March 31, 2009.
—The Senate passed its version (S. 1023) on Sept. 9, 2009 by a vote. of 79 -19.
—Both houses later approved some changes in language, and the bill was approved by both Houses on Feb. 25, 2009. A week later, it was signed into law by President Barack Obama.
—The Corporation for Travel Promotion is to be governed by a 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The composition of the board is to reflect the different sectors of the U.S. travel and tourism industry.
—How is Brand USA funded? Instead of paying visa fees, tourists from Visa Waiver countries pay a $14 fee to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ETSA). Brand USA receives $10 from this fee, with the remaining $4 going to the Department of Homeland Security.
—Brand USA qualifies for up to $100 million per year in these federal matching funds (from the private sector) through the reauthorization.
—May 2011, Jim Evans, a long-time executive in the hotel industry (and former president and CEO of Best Western International), is named as first president and CEO of the Corporation for Travel Promotion. He resigns in June 2012.
—The first meeting of the first board convened in January 2011.
—November 2011. The Corporation for Travel Promotion announces that it will being doing business as Brand USA.
—In September 2012, Christopher Thompson is named president and CEO of Brand USA. He joins the organization from his post as president and CEO of Visit Florida.
—In a magnificent case of timing its lobbying, U.S. Travel is able to get the Senate to incorporate the language of a House bill (similar to a version it had approved) into a measure of its own. The Senate never acted on the bill per se, but the language doing so was deftly and quietly dropped into a measure that funded the U.S. Capitol police as part of the Omnibus Government Appropriations in a bill that was approved by the Senate late Saturday, December 13, 2014—the last day of the 113th Congress. It extended the life of through the end of Fiscal Year 2021 (Sept. 30, 2021). Which is what we are approaching now.
Brazil Fights to Sustain its Recovery
For part of 2019, travel and tourism professionals who promote and sell Visit USA product to Brazil, the largest market in South America, were optimistic that the market would sustain a remarkable recovery from a low point in 2016, the trough year of a two-year economic recession during which inbound travel to the United States declined 24 percent. Then, in a turnaround, arrivals from Brazil to the U.S. increased 28 percent from 2016 to 2018.
But it hasn’t gone as well as the industry had hoped it would this year, as the table below illustrates.
What happened? In its latest monthly report on the performance of the tourism industry in Brazil, the travel trade publication PANROTAS, which reviewed developments of the first half of 2019. Among the key points noted are the following, as INBOUND has digested them.
—Nothing hampered industry growth and recovery as much as an “aviation crisis” triggered by the bankruptcy filing last December of Avianca Brasil (it is a separate company from Avianca, the flag carrier of Colombia), reduced the number of available airline seats, causing domestic airline prices to increase by as much as 120 percent and international prices by 30 percent, with the largest increases in ticket prices for travel to the United States.
—Among international airlines marketed by the 29 members of Abracorp (Brazilian Association of Corporate Travel Agencies), among the top 10 carriers in its ranking, only LATAM, United Airlines and Copa Airlines showed growth in the first half of 2019.
1 – LATAM: 19.7% of share (+ 11.2%)
2 – American Airlines: 13% (-5.3%)
3 – United Airlines: 10.7% (+ 20%)
4 – Air France-KLM: 9.3% (-7.5%)
5 – Lufthansa/Swiss: 6.8% (-20.8%)
6 – Delta Air Lines: 5.9% (-3.4%)
7 – British/Iberia: 5.2% (-7.7%)
8 – Emirates: 4.8% (-2.3%)
9 – TAP: 3.7% (-13.2%)
10 – Copa: 3.5% (+ 10.5%) Source:
Source: Abracorp
—The economic crisis in Argentina—where the economy has plummeted into a deep recession, its currency has grown woefully weak against the U.S. dollar, and inflation is out of control—has had an impact on numbers in Brazil and “the balance sheets of large companies such as CVC Corp. and Decolar/Despegar.”
—Through all of this, it comes as no surprise that consumer confidence and the business community’s confidence has taken a hit. The São Paulo City Consumer Confidence Index shows that, since the beginning of the year, both declined, although consumer confidence experienced a small bump at the end of the first half of the year.
Note: The ICC and ICEC range from 0 to 200 points. The level from 100 to 200 points is considered optimistic and below 100 points, pessimistic. Although the indicators are from the city of São Paulo, they follow the trend of what is happening in the rest of the country since the largest city in Brazil represents 11 percent of the national GDP.
###
—Late-Breaking Development: Delta Air Lines last week announced late last week the acquisition of 20 percent of LATAM Group for $ 1.9 billion. Together, the two companies will serve 435 destinations worldwide and will carry more passengers between North America and Latin America than any other company or partnership ever deployed. One gets and idea of the reach of LATAM by taking note of a just released OAG study which showed that LATAM has a 41 percent share of international carrier activity from São Paulo’s international airport, which is the country’s busiest.
HODGE PODGE: Shifts, Shakeups and Occasional Shaftings in the Tour and Travel Industry
Kevin Gaddes, national sales manager for now-defunct Thomas Cook, joined Travelopia a week after the former closed down on Sept. 23. He has taken on the newly created role of trade partnerships manager for some of Travelopia’s tailor-made brands. Travelopia has more than 50 specialist brands. Reporting to head of trade partnerships Simon Garrido, Gaddes will work with Hayes & Jarvis, Citalia, Sovereign Luxury Travel, Austravel and American Holidays. With the exception of a one-year spell in which he worked for GfK, Gaddes had been with Thomas Cook for more than 15 years.
Stéphane Durand, a veteran of more than 20 years at Amadeus, has been named president of Amadeus France, replacing Georges Rudas. He will also serve as senior vice president in the business travel agencies division for WEMEA (Western Europe, Middle East and Africa). Durand’s tenure at Amadeus includes several executive positions in various divisions, including general manager UK & Ireland and chief commercial officer North America. Most recently, Durand was senior vice [resident of online travel for the America Zone.
T
he French tour operator Marietton Group has retained an executive—Anne-Cécile Terret— who replaces the retired Christian Chatillon as Voyamar sales representative. She will be in charge of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions, including Lyon intra-muros. A statement from Voyamar’s management said that Anne-Cécile Terret has “already mastered Voyamar production since she spent a few years as product manager [within the] tour operator.”
Gloria Loree has been named Destination Canada’s new senior vice president, marketing strategy and chief marketing officer. Previously, she was vice president, global marketing, for the organization. Loree has been with Destination Canada for 13 years.
Charity Stewart has been appointed as new tourism marketing director for Florida’s Space Coast Office of Tourism. She comes to her new position from Huntsville, Alabama where she was account manager with Move Digital. Prior to that, she served as social media and advertising director for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center for six years.
Bruno Heleno has been named CVC’s director of national land product for Brazil’s northern and northeastern sectors. A veteran of some 15 years at the Othon hotel chain, Heleno takes over a position that has been vacant since Ricardo Assalim’s departure four months ago. Heleno is part of the executive team reporting to Claiton Armelin.
FCM Travel Solutions, a global business travel company, has appointed Jason Dunderdale as head of UK sales. He joins from car rental provider SIXT, where he was head of travel sales UK & Ireland for the last three years. Dunderdale also brings extensive sales and management experience in the banking and finance sector—his career includes 13 years in diverse roles within Lloyds Banking Group. He takes on the role at FCM from Graham Ross, former head of UK Sales who was promoted to UK general manager earlier this year. FCM is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, with an additional three regional head offices in London, Singapore and Philadelphia
Roberto Vertemati has returned to CVC Corp. The executive takes over the channel agency sales director in place of Rogério Mendes, who in turn assumes the regional sales director for the franchise network. Vertemati spent 23 years at CVC during a previous tenure before joining Beto Carrero World for three years where was commercial director and director of marketing. Beto Carrero World, Latin America’s largest theme park, is located in Penha, Brazil,
Hotelbeds, the world’s largest bedbank, has announced the appointment of Forrest Zhang as managing director for China. He joins the company in a newly created role becoming directly responsible for all the company’s activities which are focused on the Chinese market, reporting directly to Carlos Muñoz, managing director at Hotelbeds. Zhang joins Hotelbeds from Expedia, where he held the position of director of market management, Mainland China.
Justine Evans has been named the new marketing and communications manager for UFI, a global association of the exhibition industry. She is part of the UFI team in Paris. Justine takes over the role from Monika Fourneaux-Ceskova who managed UFI’s Marketing and Communications activities for the past year and a half, and who has relocated to Dubai. Evans brings extensive experience in marketing and communications. She brings with her a background in the non-profit sector, having worked in areas related to health, refrigeration and standardization.
Kristina Miranda has been appointed as vice president of sales for Insight Vacations & Luxury Gold. She has been promoted from her previous role as director of national and key accounts. One of her main responsibilities as director of national and key accounts was to grow and develop Insight and Luxury Gold’s new preferred relationship with Virtuoso. Prior to her role at Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold, Kristina spent five-and-a-half years at AmaWaterways as director of national accounts.
Laura Di Nardo (left) and Kerry Sharpe have joined the Toronto-based marketing firm, VoX International, as account manager and senior public relations manager, respectively. Di Nardo comes to VoX with more than six years of sales and marketing experience in the travel industry, most recently in trade media. She will take on the role of travel trade account manager at VoX, using her industry expertise to help VoX clients develop travel trade relationships, brand awareness, training programs and new product development in Canada. Sharpe has worked in the Canadian travel industry for the last 17 years. She started as a writer, then moved to senior corporate communications roles before returning to the trade media where she has worked for the past three years. At VoX Sharpe will work as senior public relations manager at the company’s Toronto office.
The Kansas City Kansas CVB has selected Alan Carr as the organization’s new executive director. Before his new post, Carr ran his own marketing and public relations agency for four years. Previously, he spent 10 years with Visit KC, including a tenure as vice president of marketing and communications. Carr succeeds Bridgette Jobe who left the Kansas City Kansas bureau to become director of tourism for the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.
Alyssa Barrera-Mason, who is currently the executive director of the downtown management district in Corpus Christi has been appointed interim CEO of the Corpus Christi CVB. She will serve her dual role until a permanent CVB CEO is selected. The action follows the decision of Paulette Kluge to resign from the position following the discovery that she had agreed to pay the Selena Foundation $50,000 regardless of how much a fundraising event made. According to local news accounts, Kluge’s decision was not made clear to the CVB board of directors at the time of discovery. The CVB board agreed to uphold that commitment of $50,000 to the Selena Foundation.
G Adventures has appointed Tom Bell as director of sales for the UK and Ireland. He will join G Adventures on October 21 to oversee the operator’s on-the-road sales team of 10 global purpose specialists. He replaces Rachel Coffey who left earlier this year, and will be supported by national sales manager, Stu Darnley. Bell will join from Hotelbeds Group, where he was regional manager for UK and Ireland at Bedsonline.
Benjamin Maddy has been named director of sales for Ripley’s Believe it or Not! Times Square in New York City. Well known in the travel and tourism community in New York, Maddy’s career has included senior sales positions at The Madison Square Garden Company, Discovery Times Square and Dave & Buster’s.
Happy Work Anniversaries to …
Mark Telmany for 29 years at U.S. Coachways
Molly Blaisdell for 6 years at Alcatraz Cruises
Barb Newton for 5 years at CalTravel
Hillary Bressler for 4 years at Happy Traveler
Brian Said for 3 years at Choose Chicago
Joe Robinson for 1 year at Redeam
Source: LinkedIn
POSTED INDUSTRY JOBS
From SearchWide Global:
—The Corpus Christi Convention & Visitors Bureau is searching for its next chief executive officer. For more details, click here.
—Crayola Experience is looking for a head of marketing at its Easton, Pa. location. For more information, click here.
—The El Paso Convention & Visitors Bureau has an opening for a director of convention development. Click here for more details.
—Apple Leisure Group has an opening for senior director of supplier strategy & investment. For more information, click here.
—Discover Puerto Rico is searching for a leisure sales director. Click here for more details.
—Visit Milwaukee has an opening for a director of sales. Click here for more information.
The Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau and Will Rogers Memorial Center is searching for a general manager. Click here for details.
—An international hotels and resorts company is seeking a Regional Director of Sales and Marketing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. For more information, visit here.
—Visit Dallas is looking for a president and CEO. For more details, click here.
—The Miami Beach Convention Center (Spectra) has an opening for a director of sales. Click here for more information.
—Visit Sacramento has an opening for a director of sales. Click here for more information.
—A hotel management company is searching for a remote director of revenue management for the Embassy Suites Brand who will oversee two recently renovated. For more information, click here.
—The Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation is looking for a director of national accounts, West Coast. For more information, click here.
—Great Wolf Resorts is looking for someone to fill the position of vice president of sales. Visit here for more information.
Destinations International is seeking to hire a senior director, strategic alliances. For more information, click here.
—The Saugatuck Douglas Area Convention & Visitors Bureau is searching for a new executive director. Click here for more information.
—Visit St. Pete/Clearwater is looking for a president & CEO. For more information, click here.
—The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau has an opening for a vice president of people strategies. Click here for more information.
—A leading hotel management company based in Dallas is searching for a national revenue & sales reporting manager. For more information, click here.
From HARP wallen Global Executive Recruitment and Search:
—A tourism board with an office situated in Central London is looking for a marketing and public relations manager. Click here for details.
—A well-established travel brand based in Hampshire is searching for a public relations director. For more information, visit here.
—A destination management company is searching for someone who is fluent in Portuguese and English to be a country manager to be based in Lisbon, Portugal. Click here for more information.
