Wendy Knight, a longtime public relations consultant, has been named commissioner of the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing. Gov. Phil Scott made the announcement. Knight has more than 20 years experience in public relations, and once served as acting executive director for Cigna in Northern New England. Knight succeeds Megan Smith, who had served for six years under the state’s previous governor, Peter Shumlin.
Ralf Horter (ight) is retiring from his post as chief commercial officer of Germany’s largest tour operator, TUI, is in order to have more private time in his life, but he remains a member of TUI’s supervisory board. Succeeding Horter will be Marek Andryszak,(left), chief operating officer who also remains head of the TUI subsidiary L’Tur, which specializes in last-minute holidays.
Andrew Botterill, dnata Travel Europe’s chief executive for its business-to-business brands is scheduled to step down this summer, indicating that he would like to spend more time with his family over the summer before moving on to a new opportunity. Botterill, who has been with the company for 17 years led the sale of Stella Travel Services UK to dnata in October 2014 and has spent the last 24 months leading the strategic review and integration of dnata’s B2B brands including Gold Medal Travel.
The San Angelo, Texas Chamber of Commerce has announced the appointment of Diann Bayes as vice president of its CVB. Bayes, who was chosen from among 75 candidates to replace Pamela Miller in the post, was most recently senior vice president of membership services for the Texas Travel and Tourism Industry Association in Austin. Bayes has worked in the industry for more than 20 years, with previous managerial positions at CVBs in Texas and Kansas.
At Thomas Cook, Ingo Burmester will officially take up the position of CEO Hotels & Resorts in May. Burmeister, who headed TUI’s Robinson clubs for five years and who had been with TUI since 2000, will be responsible for developing Cook’s own-brand hotel activities. The group currently has some 200 concept hotels which trade under brands such as Sentido, Smartline, Sunwing and Casa Cook.
