Lipton, who is based in Glasgow, will take up her role on 16 December and report into Brad Bennetts, head of sales and business development for APT and its Travelmarvel brand.

She will be responsible for building relationships with key trade partners, identifying new business opportunities, managing third-party retail accounts and delivering agent training.

Lipton previously spent more than six years as a key account manager for Gold Medal and Travel 2 and prior to that, worked as a Travel 2 travel consultant for eight years.

Her move follows the recent appointment of APT’s Becky Baumbach to a newly created role as dedicated homeworker business development manager.

Bennetts said APT was “thrilled” to welcome Lipton to its team.

“She joins a fantastic new team, at an exciting time of growth for our brands, and her appointment reflects the investment that our business is making to ensure the continued sales success of our valued agent partners,” he said. “With new ships on the Mekong and expansions into new destinations planned for 2023, Koral will have lots of exciting product developments to talk to the industry about, and we can’t wait for her to get started.”

Colin Currie, head of trade partnerships at Gold Medal Travel Group, added: “Koral has been an amazing member of the team and someone with whom I’ve enjoyed working closely.

“She’s a great example of how we nurture talent, having worked her way up from the call centre to becoming a valued member of our trade partnership manager team six years ago. I wish her all the best on her move and look forward to enhancing our relationship with APT even further with her.”