She will work across the brand’s B2B portfolio of Gold Medal, Pure Luxury, Cruise Plus and Incredible Journeys.

She will join the team at the company’s headquarters in Lancashire and report into Mark Henderson, head of product West.

Bird brings with her more than a decade of industry experience, the majority of which was spent in a commercial function at Tui UK and Ireland.

There she held a variety of positions including overseas holiday advisor, retail manager and team manager for the customer contact centre, before moving into product in 2021, where she was responsible for tours and multi-centre holidays worldwide.

Henderson said: "The US and Canada really is our heartland, so we’re delighted to have someone of Sarah’s calibre on board to drive our reputation among the trade as the ‘go to’ for stateside holidays and packages.

"We have such a diversity of product across our four B2B brands and the depth of her knowledge will only add to what is already a formidable level of expertise in the team."

Bird added: "The team here is rightly regarded as the best in the business so I’m very excited to join them."

She said demand from agents for US and Canada holidays has been "ticking up steadily" during 2022, despite the weakness of the pound and ongoing fluidity in transatlantic air services.