34 TRAVEL TRADE NEWS
Tributes paid to a tourism industry leader
TRIBUTES have been paid to a leading light in the local travel and tourism industry, Mark Alexander, who died recently. Mark had a varied career from being
a young hotel chef in Cote D’Azur to honing his
skills with British
Transport Hotels in London. In Scotland he joined the Stakis Hotel Group and managed three of their top properties. He was also instrumental in setting up Conference Nottingham, the first convention bureau of its type in the East Midlands. He then returned to Northern
Ireland as Deputy CEO of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and that’s when his main passion became evident, getting visitors to come to Northern Ireland,
soak up the
atmosphere - and play Golf ! Diane Poole, Stena Line's Head of
PR and Communications, knew Mark well. "He will be remembered by many of us, for his work with SKAL, the international
organisation promotes the benefits of that ‘Doing
business among friends’. "Originally from Dungannon, and
ambassador for all great tourism and hospitality
experiences, he was
passionate about promoting Northern Ireland and its great people. At every opportunity, local and overseas he sold the Province as a destination of which he was extremely proud." Added Diane: "Over the last three
years, Mark had been mentoring cluster groups with the local councils and Tourism Northern Ireland. While doing this work he taught all of us about the importance of collaboration, pride in our businesses and the welcome we give guests. This approach has proven so successful it is being replicated around the country." Mark, who was recently elected as
International Executive Director of SKAL, leaves behind his partner Caroline (Adams). His funeral service took place recently at Ballyclare Methodist Church. The picture of Mark was taken in his garden in Javea, Spain.
Travelport agreement with Eurostar TRAVELPORT, the leading Travel
Commerce Platform, has announced a new agreement with Eurostar, the only high-speed passenger rail service between the UK and mainland Europe
via the Channel Tunnel. Under this new agreement, Eurostar becomes the first rail operator to benefit from Travelport’s leading merchandising solution, Rich Content and Branding.
June 2018 Travel News
Ken’s a man with a mission!
EN Harrower is a man with many hidden talents … more later … but one thing he’s not shy about is his passion for his new role at Flybe.
K
‘Country Manager-Ireland’ is the title and it’s a post which has been created to help better serve Flybe’s customers across Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Ken explains: “Flybe is passionate about connecting regional communities and George Best Belfast City Airport is of particular significance.
“As our third largest base operating up to 570 flights a week and carrying 1.7 million passengers annually, it’s strategically important to our network. As such, it was decided to provide a renewed sales focus and become closer to our customers and stakeholders in order to understand their specific travel needs. So the Country Manager role was created to embrace this ethos as well as becoming the commercial link between Flybe and the community which we are proud to serve.” “The primary purpose of the role is to drive sales and improve brand awareness. I will be doing this by building and promoting strong, long lasting customer relationships so that they always feel they are benefiting from the relationship. Flybe is an airline that our customers can trust and with which they can form a professional partnership and long-term alliance.
Other aspects of the role include being a first point of contact with the airports we serve across all commercial areas; improve Flybe’s presence in the region; monitor competition and local issues; analyse and signalise market trends and developments within the region; organise and attend
April Car Promotion Finalist
Driving sales and promoting brand awareness his aim
events to ‘showcase’ the airline and represent Flybe in local PR and marketing activities to ensure that the Flybe message and strategic direction is heard consistently throughout Northern Ireland and Ireland”.
With a career steeped in sales, Ken was ideally suited to the role. He has been with Flybe for 13 years, having started his working life 30 years ago in aviation as a customer sales agent for British Midland at Heathrow. Rising to Business Development Manager, he then left the airline industry in 1996 to pursue other professional sales posts, in Group 4 Security Systems and Yellow Pages. Aviation came knocking again in 2005 when he moved to Northern Ireland to take up the role of Regional Sales Manager with Flybe. “I’m passionate about driving sales, creating and rewarding loyalty and making Flybe the airline of choice for our diverse range of Northern Irish customers, whether they are business travellers, students, sporting fans, commuters or those travelling to visit family and friends. Flybe has been serving Northern Ireland for 35 years and, during this period, has grown significantly.
“We now operate 15 routes and offer worldwide connections with our Global Airline Partners. More recently we added a sixth rotation to our much-needed London City service, increased frequency too on our Cardiff service and are about to begin new flights to Doncaster.”
Ken Harrower - Flybe’s Country Manager Ireland
Whilst there are definitely set sales objectives attached to the post, Ken particularly enjoys the unpredictability of his job. “As Country Manager-Ireland there is no ‘typical week’. The majority of my time is spent working with our key trade, corporate and leisure partners in Northern Ireland. Some weeks involve me travelling to our Head Office in Exeter to attend internal meetings or I could be at one of our other Irish bases representing Flybe at various events. For example, in June I’m looking forward to spending two days at NI Travel News’ Big Event.” And as for those ‘hidden talents’ Ken is not only a massive music fan but is also an accomplished drummer having played in a number of bands over the years. When he’s not following his beloved Chelsea Football club or playing tennis, you can find him pursuing his latest passion at the piano - practising his scales. One thing’s for certain, he’s a guy who is always busy and that can only be good news for Flybe’s customers in Northern Ireland.
Topflight Barbecue
LOCAL travel agents were treated to a fantastic 'Summer Soiree' hosted by Topflight at Cutter’s Wharf. The Italian specialist was celebrating the launch of their summer Italian programme flying to Verona from Belfast International.
Zoe Reid, Neil Walker, Paula McMahon, Sarah Mulholland, Liz Dinsmore, Andrew Adair, Michelle Irvine, Reliable Travel, with Jill Russell of Topflight, at the Topflight Barbecue at Cutter’s Wharf
The picturesque waterside venue at Cutters Wharf proved to be a very popular choice for the BBQ.
Elaine Harding from the Garda Holiday Club was announced as the April winner
BLUE Insurance has announced that the April 2018 finalist of their car promotion is Elaine Harding of the Garda Holiday Club The competition, which is running in association with Toyota Sandyford, The Home of Hybrid, started in November last year and will run until November of this year. The competition is giving one lucky travel agent or broker the chance to take home a brand-new Toyota Yaris Hybrid.
In an expansion of the entry criteria which began last month, every travel insurance policy sold each month will now automatically give you one entry into the monthly draw. All you have to do to become one of the 13 monthly finalists is sell travel insurance policies! Each agent must ensure that the
insurance product sold is suitable for their client and must also make sure they have their own unique login to make their bookings count. Entries can be disqualified if there is evidence of mis-selling. Members of the Irish Travel Trade or Insurance Brokers can also avail of the one bonus place at the Grand Final by visiting Toyota Sandyford and requesting a test drive saying, “Don’t Renew Unless It’s Blue”.
Each of the 13 monthly winners as well as the 1 bonus winner will take home a mystery prize for their troubles and be invited to the Grand Final in Dublin in December 2018 to compete for the Toyota Yaris Hybrid! Visit
blueinsurance.ie/AgentLogin for more information on the competition.
Topflight's theme for Summer 2018 is 'We'll help you discover the many sides of Italy' and bearing this in mind agents got to savour the 'Delicious side of Italy'.
Gillian Hanna, Carol Byrne, Maureen Easton, Clubword Travel, Jill Russell, Topflight and Brendan O’Connor, TravelMax at Topflight’s Barbecue for agents in Belfast
With the arrival of a traditional ice cream cart guests choose from a selection of mouth- watering Italian ice creams which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone! Live music was provided by the extremely talented Buskerman' while typical Topflight hospitality including speciality Italian gins and great Italian wines.
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