An industry veteran with almost 25 years of experience in travel, Walsh said she was looking forward to growing ITAA’s membership, “developing the supports to our existing members and enhancing the credibility and reputation of the Irish travel industry”.

“The continued success of our industry has been down to travel agents’ collective ability to evolve and meet the changing marketplace, be it changes in technology, empowering our people or working within a sustainable environment,” she added. “The coming year offers big opportunities for the travel trade to evolve further.”

The appointment was welcomed by chief executive Clare Dunne, who became the association’s first female chief executive in mid-May.

“Her experience and her work on the board over the last 10 years shows her love of the industry and commitment to the Association,” Dunne said. 

It comes as Dunne recently told TTG that tackling the industry’s gender imbalance with more women attaining higher-ranking jobs was one of her top priorities as chief executive.

“In my past life, I was chair of the Association of Women Travel Executives [in Ireland], and we did a lot of work to motivate women to put themselves forward for positions on boards or senior positions," she said in late July.