Robert tknown aff tells us that his position as vice president of marketing for the Papillon group. has been eliminated. The multilingual Graff, who is widely known throughout the tour and travel industry in the U.S. and numerous overseas markets, had been with the company for more than 17 years.
Barry Moskowitz has been promoted to the position of vice president, sales and industry relations, for the Greater Miami CVB. A veteran of more than 20 years with the bureau, Moscowitz had served as vice president of sales for the past eight years.
Geoff Freeman, who had once been rumored to be the heir apparent to U.S. Travel Association President Roger Dow, is leaving his post as president and CEO of the American Gaming Association and will lead the Grocery Manufacturers Association beginning Aug. 1. Freeman, who has been with the Gaming Association for five years, had previously served as chief operating officer at US Travel.
In a shakeup at Travelopia—it is the collection of more than 50 specialty brands acquired early last year from TUI by UK-headquartered private equity firm KKR—Martin Froggatt’s role as managing director of exhibitions and event has changed slightly. While he will retain responsibility for all sports events, adventure and U.S. tour operating businesses, he will relinquish responsibility for polar expedition brand Quark and private jet holiday operator TCS to chief executive Andy Duncan. In addition, Froggatt will become chief sales officer for the group, looking at “sales expertise and new sales opportunities”, Duncan said. The wide-ranging reorganization also resulted in the departure of Mathew Prior, managing director tailor-made and marine.
Contiki has named Dave Marathakis as its new national sales manager, Canada. Once a trip manager for over three years overseeing Contiki adventures throughout the UK and Europe, first joined the Canada team as a sales manager for Eastern Canada before recently becoming the team’s senior sales manager. In his new role, Marathakis will lead sales for the youth travel expert and continue to further develop relationships with trade partners across Canada. Originally from Australia, Marathakis first got his taste of travel 10 years ago in his role as a trip manager for Contiki, running all adventures in continental Europe and specializing in the UK and Ireland.
Gold Medal and Travel 2—both brands are part of dnata Travel—have announced new sales team appointments. Clare Weatherall (left), who has been with the organization for four years as key account manager, is appointed head of national accounts and will report directly to sales director B2B Europe Nick Hughes. Gemma Wilks (right) joins the team in the role of key account manager, from Bourne Leisure, where she has been sales executive for the last two years. Hollie Stillion, current key account manager for London, is promoted to the new position of business development manager.
Ravneet Bhandari, is the new chief commercial officer of Brightline—the inter-city passenger rail service connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, with plans for future service to Orlando—where he will be responsible for all of Brightline’s revenue generation and consumer-facing endeavors, including the marketing, revenue management, sales, business development and strategic partnership department. Previously, he was the CEO and co-founder of LodgIQ, a technology startup that developed revenue management software implemented by more than 500 hotels.
Grupo Trend (it is a CVC brand) took the opportunity during its just completed sales convention to announce promotions and hirings for its sales team for the interior of São Paulo, Brazil’s largest state (Est. population of 45 million). André Pedroso has just been promoted to supervisor for the regional office, responding directly to Esequiel Santos, manager of relationships and sales. There are also two new sales executives—Monica Dantas and Gustavo Magalhães. (In photo, left to right, are: Pedroso, Dantas and Magalhães.)
José Luiz Christofanelli, a founding partner of the Pagtur Group and a former director of the now-defunct Nascimento Turismo, is leaving the company to start new projects. The former commercial director was with the company at its founding in 2002, he took over the commercial director’s post in 2007.
