Graham Horner has joined the self-guided walking and cycling specialist as chief growth officer, with oversight for sales, marketing and customer experience – as well as international expansion.

Horner joins from Simpson Travel, where he was managing director. He is also a previous Scott Dunn chief marketing officer.

Joining him at Macs is former Simpson finance director Nick Blake, and ex-dnata product director Stuart Hammonds, who has joined as chief technology officer.

The trio’s arrival follows that of former Hotelplan chief executive Paul Carter, who joined the Macs board last year.

Macs said demand for active and adventure holidays this year to date was up 35% on 2019 levels, adding the appointments would help the company achieve its plan to grow business four-fold by 2026.

Neil Lapping, Macs founder and chief executive, said the trio brought significant experience growing travel businesses. "We’ve had a fantastic start to the year, with trading up 35% on 2019, and have ambitious growth plans for both the UK market and internationally," he said.

On agents, Lapping said Macs would look to build existing trade ties, and forge new ones. "In the UK, we already work with selected travel agent partners and are looking to developing these relationships still further, as well as building new ones," he said.

"We also believe international expansion will be a key component of our growth, particularly in the US where the self-guided category is still in its infancy."

Lapping added the firm anticipated active and adventure holiday boom following the pandemic. "We are seeing huge demand for self-guided walking and cycling holidays. Domestic travel continues to be important, while bucket-list options such as the Camino de Santiago, the Tour de Mont Blanc and the West Highland Way, are selling very well across all markets.

"More than ever, people want to spend their time outdoors and are looking to achieve something on their travels. They want to immerse themselves in destinations and make a positive impact. Being on two feet or two wheels is the ideal way for travellers to do that."