Appleby had been due to join If Only as product and commercial director, but it was revealed today he would not be taking up the position.

Botterill left dnata last year after three years leading the integration of Gold Medal Travel, Travel 2 and The Global Travel Group, among others. Prior to that he was chief executive of Stella Travel Services UK and also Global.

He became executive chairman of Travcorp – which comprises OTA Holidaygems.co.uk and the B2C Destination2.co.uk – on February 1.

Appleby will become product and purchasing director at Destination2, with Kate Wilde due to follow him as product manager.

Botterill said: “Matt has been working with us on a consultancy basis since October last year and brings with him a wealth of experience gained within a number of senior positions across the UK travel industry including at Gold Medal Travel, Thomas Cook and most recently dnata UK.

“Matt will be integral in shaping and developing our product strategy going forward, allowing us to continue the rapid growth we’ve seen over the last 12 months.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to welcome Kate Wilde into the business. Kate joined us in February this year from JacTravel and previous to that held roles within Hotels4U and Thomas Cook.”

Appleby added: “The business is still relatively young but we have an immensely talented and experienced team in place and the growth we are seeing is nothing short of phenomenal.

“This year we are 90% up in bookings and in January and February alone we sold almost half the total room nights we’d sold in the whole of 2017.

“All our key regions of the Middle East, Indian Ocean, Caribbean and Asia are performing well and we are putting plans in place to expand into new regions and product types as we progress through 2018.

“I look forward to continuing to work with our key supplier partners over the coming months and years, enabling them to share in our future growth.”