Andrew Turner is leaving his post as head of industry sales for the tour operator Intrepid Travel to join destination management company Discova, which is owned by Flight Centre. He has been with Intrepid for nearly eight years. He will lead a sales team located in major source markets such as the UK, US and Asia Pacific region from London.
Alison Best has joined the Northstar Travel Group—it puts out the Travel Weekly family of travel trade publications—as business development director. A long-time veteran of the travel and tourism industry, Best has previously served as: executive vice president of Destinations International; president and CEO of Visit Oakland: and senior vice president, business development, for the Santa Monica CVB.
According to reports in the UK travel trade and business press, the Chinese conglomerate Fosun, which had invested in the now defunct Thomas Cook, has recruited a number of former Thomas Cook executives in order to re-launch the brand as an online operation. According to the Times of London, the new entity appointed Alan French, formerly group strategy and technology director, as chief executive, with Raj Sharma, a former finance executive, joining as chief financial officer and Phil Gardner, Cook’s head of sales, ecommerce and marketing, as head of marketing.
Nancy Drolet has joined Toronto-based Jesson & Company Communications as its new senior director, travel trade, where she will be responsible for all trade activities for destination clients including education, attendance at trade events as well as other responsibilities. Nancy joins Jesson from the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), where she was a business development representative. The CTO announced last fall that they would close their North American offices along with their office in London, England.
Cheryl Offerman, global tourism sales manager for Meet Minneapolis, has retired after serving nearly 25 years with the organization, and after more than 30 years in the travel and tourism industry. “In addition to long walks on the beach and finally having time to read the stack of books I’ve accumulated,” she told colleagues in an e-mail, “I’ll begin a new part-time profession by teaching English as a second language to immigrant children.”
Christian Armond has been appointed by Ocean Holidays Group as its first marketing director. He joins the company following tenures at loveholidays, where he was marketing director; and TUI, where he was head of digital marketing. Ocean Holidays Group includes Ocean Florida, specialists in Florida and U.S. holidays; since 2004 Ocean Florida has sent in excess of 250,000 customers on holiday and as a result has become the number one independent Florida Travel Specialist in the UK.
Debbie Girard has been appointed director of business development for TRAVELSAVERS Canada. Girard brings over 20 years of travel industry experience to her new role with the company, which is based in Vancouver, Canada.
Boston-based Audley Travel recently appointed Anne-Marie Kline as head of North American marketing. Previously, Kline was senior vice president of global marketing for Living Proof Inc.
Trafalgar and Costsaver Canada, which specialize in in guided vacations, have announced the appointment of Mohit Dayaram as sales manager for the greater Toronto area. His previous experience includes tenures as a sales professional for Kensington Tours, WE and DW Alexander.
The Brazilian tour operator Trend has announced the promotion of André Pedroso as manager of the company’s São Paulo base inland. Pedroso has more than 14 years of experience in the tourism business, eight of them with Trend.
Also from Brazil: Maryane Giacometi is no longer a marketing and communication specialist at Flytour Viagens. She has joined the Visual Turismo team, assuming the supervision of the operator’s marketing area. She will report directly to Thais Machado.
Ovation Travel Group has announced plans to expand in the western United States, where it will increase the number of independent advisors throughout the region. To develop and lead Ovation’s anticipated growth in the region, Beverly Hills-based Aanchal Gandhi is joining the company in the newly created role of vice president of leisure and independent advisors. Gandhi, who will report to Gina Gabbard, senior vice president of leisure and independent advisors, was previously a corporate and luxury travel consultant for Protravel International
Chris Simmonds has been named the new managing director of the senior travel specialist, Saga Holidays. He joins the operator from his post as chief executive of Revitalize, a national UK charity providing respite holidays for disabled people and carers. He had previously worked for Saga for nearly a dozen years, lastly as managing director.
Former Red Sea Holidays sales director Jason Hilton has joined ITC Travel Group in the same role. He has joined on a 12-month contract covering maternity leave for current director Sarah Roberts. Hilton was sales director at Red Sea Holidays for eight years and, before that, worked with TUI and as head of sales at My Travel.
Andreas Heimann, managing director of German tour operator DER Touristik’s travel agency operation, is now also responsible for online sales for the company. In addition to his previous responsibility for own travel agency sales. With this step, the company wants to further expand DER sales across all sales channels and use synergies in omnichannel. In his new function Heimann takes care of DER Touristik Partner-Service, Derpart as well as DER Touristik Online and Strategic Market Research in addition to DER travel agencies. Matthias Lange and Maximilian Küppers continue to be Managing Directors of DER Touristik Online.
The Kentucky Derby Museum has named Katie Fussenegger as its new vice president. Previously, Fussenegger served as president & CEO of ShelbyKY Tourism since 2010. Overall, she had been with the organization for nearly 13 years. Her experience in the travel and tourism industry also includes a tenure at Louisville Tourism.
In France, Barbara Riou and Guillaume Benjamin join the Visitors sales team: Barbara Riou has been tapped for eastern France and Guillaume Benjamin will be responsible for Paris, 93, Hauts-de-France and Belgium.
