Andy Washington spoke to TTG in the wake of the appointment of John Bevan as new chief executive officer dnata Travel B2B Europe, and Nick Hughes as new sales director dnata Travel B2B Europe.
The group also announced this week that Silversea’s Lisa McAuley would be joining as managing director, tour operations, dnata Travel B2B Europe.
Washington said: “We’ve already got a really good team at Gold Medal and Travel 2... They picked up the reins and we’ve been seeing business grow in terms of sales.
“The trade team still in place have pulled together and done an extremely good job – that part of the business is all about those trade relations, that partnership and trust and they are excellent at that. We will continue that going forward.
“The strategy is still to keep Gold Medal and Travel 2 distinct – they have different travel agent and customer bases, different priorities and slightly different destinations. Gold Medal and Travel 2 will stay as B2B.”
He added that the B2B and B2C sides of the business would also remain separate, adding: “We will continue to do what we’re good at extremely well – supporting agents and trust is really important”.
Elsewhere Washington said dnata was keen to focus on opportunities with the Global Travel Group, lead by managing director Andy Stark under the overall direction of Steve Barrass who was recently promoted as new senior vice president of new ventures (Europe).
“We’ve got Steve Barrass coming back who’ll be looking after new ventures and managing the Global Travel Group,” Washington said. “So the opportunity is there to look at how we take Global forward too. Andy Stark will still be MD, reporting into Steve.
“Exciting opportunities are there to supplement the current teams,” he added. “They’re not there to take away opportunities or restrict anyone. It’s all about how we can grow and what do we need to do to be fit for purpose with the travel agents moving forward.
"It’s not just about supply as it was 15 years ago. What technologies do they need, what support. Things are moving on so quickly.”
Elsewhere Washington praised the interim senior B2B management sales team who were appointed following the departures of Andy Feeth; Gordon McCreadie; Matt Appleby; Tracy Hirsz and David Irving in the summer.
“Colin [Currie] and Karen [Fletcher] will report to Nick [Hughes]. They’ve done an amazing job so lots of praise and thanks to them. Paul Smith [finance director] with these guys has driven things forward and done an amazing job. The new people coming in are to take the businesses and strategy forward and one of the key elements we’re looking at is how we can expand into other source markets. They’d look at Europe first.”
Meanwhile McAuley’s appointment, announced yesterday, will see her leading the marketing, trade sales, and product and commercial teams across Gold Medal and Travel 2.
McAuley will report into Bevan, based in the Preston office although she will maintain a regular presence in the Glasgow office, dnata said.
