Priti Mehta
Oceania Cruises recruits Mehta as UK head of sales Oceania Cruises has appointed Priti Mehta to the role of head of sales for the UK and Ireland. She has 25 years’ experience in the travel industry, the past 10 of which she spent at Silversea Cruises, most recently as head of sales for the UK and Ireland.
“In the UK, there is no one association to represent the industry”
World Travel & Tourism Council president David Scowsill says UK suffers without a single voice
MORE IN TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS: BACK PAGE
Advantage Conference signs up Tilstone and O’Neil-Dunne Industry commentators Paul Tilstone and Timothy O’Neil-Dunne will be joined by representatives from Wex Europe, easyJet, Willis and Hallmark for the business travel session at this year’s Advantage Conference in Turkey, on May 14-18. The breakout session will be themed ‘Personalisation and Digitisation’.
Hong Kong Tourism Board relocates London office The Hong Kong Tourism Board for the UK and northern Europe has moved offices. The address is 2nd Floor, 20 Orange Street, London WC2H 7EF. Tel: 020 7321 5380.
discoverhongkong.com
MSC Cruises unveils wonder name for first Vista vessel MSC Cruises has revealed that the name of the first of its Project Vista mega-ships will be MSC Meraviglia, which means ‘wonder’ in Italian. The ship will be delivered in May 2017 and take bookings from June, according to MSC Cruises executive chairman Pierfrancesco Vago, speaking at the STX France shipyard in Saint Nazaire during a steel-cutting ceremony to mark the start of construction.
Urquhart-Stewart to speak again at Travel Convention The top-rated speaker at last year’s Travel Convention has been invited to return to give his views on the economic outlook. Justin Urquhart-Stewart, founder of Seven Investment Management, will speak on the
main stage at this year’s Abta convention, which takes place in Costa Navarino, Greece, on October 12-14. Over 500 UK travel executives are expected to attend.
Affordable recruits Hays commercial chief as MD Hays Travel commercial director Andrea Kendal is to leave the group next month after nine years to become managing director of Affordable Car Hire. The car rental company said Kendal’s appointment to the newly created role aimed to strengthen the company’s senior team following expansion.
Air NZ’s £75 fares prompt 48-hour
queue outside STA More than 60 people camped outside an STA Travel shop in London for up to two days in a bid to snap up £75 Air New Zealand tickets last week. The sale was to celebrate the airline’s 75th year. One hundred return tickets to Auckland were available at the special price. Tim Fryer, STA Travel marketing
and product director, said: “We’ve been utterly overwhelmed by the interest in the £75 Air New Zealand fares. We knew there would be a scramble to book them but we certainly didn’t expect more than 60 people sleeping outside our Victoria store for two nights.”
Cook pledges commitment to Cresta tour operation Thomas Cook has reaffirmed its commitment to keeping its Cresta tour operation despite launching a City Escapes brand. The company is adamant that it is not “dropping” the Cresta brand. But a spokesman admitted it would be keeping its “options open” for the brand, which has now become direct-sell. Cresta will retain
its website, although it will not publish a brochure. The brand will operate separately from Thomas Cook City Escapes, which will target new city-break customers. A spokesman said: “The
Andrea Kendal 8 •
travelweekly.co.uk — 23 April 2015
Cresta standalone site and the City Escapes pages on
Thomascook.com will operate on different platforms and are distinct from each other. “We are keeping the Cresta
brand and website to retain those “It’s unwise
to consider ‘retiring’ the
Cresta brand in its entirety”
loyal Cresta customers, while serving the needs of those that were previously unaware of our offering via the new City Escapes promotion. “Thomas Cook City Escapes incorporates the best city-hotel product from the Flexible Trips retail brand and the customer-facing Cresta brand. It would be unwise to consider ‘retiring’ the Cresta brand in its entirety while
we still have loyal customers.” The dedicated cities
brand was soft-launched
to agents last week to make sure the trade understood the new proposition and the booking platforms. City Escapes creates one brand
for the company’s stores and independent agents to sell its city-break packages. It features 31,000 hotels in more than 2,000 destinations worldwide.
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