NEWS ROUND-UP
SPAA president Dooey launches
scheme to attract young talent Joanne Dooey, the new president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, has unveiled an agent awards and a scholarship programme to attract young talent. Scottish agents and managers in leisure and business sectors will be honoured in the inaugural Sparkle Awards in September 2020. The scholarship programme will help members take on school-leavers.
Intrepid boss Edwards leaves
business as part of shake-up Intrepid Travel has scrapped its ‘northern hemisphere super region’ (EMEA and the Americas). Managing director Michael Edwards is leaving the business, with commercial director Aaron Hocking becoming global business development director. Two marketing roles have been made redundant.
Carol Hay to continue work of
CTO after UK office closure A company set up by Carol Hay, UK and Europe marketing director of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, is to take on the work of the CTO after it closes its UK office at the end of January. McKenzie Gayle Ltd will manage the CTO’s UK ball, roadshows, agent training events, awards and presence at WTM London. Hay said she intended to have a greater consumer focus.
LifeLine to help put turkey on table Juliet Dennis
Abta LifeLine is offering to “put Christmas dinner on the table” for those in the industry in need this month. The charity’s Spirit of Christmas
Appeal is offering vouchers for a Christmas shop to any current or former staff of Abta member companies who have fallen on hard times. A union survey released this week
showed that just 21% of ex-Thomas Cook Airlines staff are back in full-time work 10 weeks after the collapse of the travel giant. More than 90% of respondents to
the Unite poll said they were making cutbacks this Christmas, with more than half (53%) spending less on children’s presents. LifeLine director Trudie
Clements said Cook’s failure had led to an “unprecedented” level of applications. The charity has had 900 emergency applications and given out £100,000 in food vouchers.
Clements said: “We can help
people who are really struggling by providing them with, as a minimum, vouchers to put their Christmas dinner on the table.” Ex-Cook staff who have already
applied for emergency help can also apply for Christmas aid – and will not need to fill in forms again. “We are changing the website so they can sign up just by ticking a box, it will be a shorter process,” added Clements. LifeLine is working through
about 50 more-complex applications from ex-Cook staff for help with mortgages or bills. A majority of those helped
have been single mothers. After an initial wave of applications from ex-shop staff, the charity has more recently had applications from former cabin crew and overseas staff. “What has happened is
Wallace Arnold Travel to open six retail pods in Yorkshire
Nine-branch travel agency Wallace Arnold Travel is opening six retail pods in Morrisons supermarkets in Yorkshire. The agency, part of the Specialist Leisure
Group (SLG), which also owns Shearings Holidays, has already opened three pods, with three more to open in the coming weeks. Those already open are in Brampton,
Barnsley; Doncaster; and Pontefract. A pod in Harrogate will open “soon”,
followed by ones in Morley, Leeds, and Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, in the next few
8 12 DECEMBER 2019
weeks. More are expected to follow in early 2020. Agents in the pods will take bookings for all SLG brands plus other operators. Natalie Collins, head of retail at Wallace
Arnold Travel, said: “These pods are a first for us and allow us to locate ourselves in areas where we know our business is strong and the potential to attract new customers is high.” Wallace Arnold Travel has branches
in Bradford, Castleford, Chesterfield, Halifax, Hillsborough, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Wakefield and York.
Michelle Metcalf and Natalie Collins take delivery of the Barnsley pod
travelweekly.co.uk
unprecedented,” said Clements. “As fast as the money comes in, it is going out.” About £80,000 was raised at Abta’s Travel Convention in Tokyo and a further £180,000 by an appeal led by industry veterans John
McEwan and John Donaldson. i Apply for help:
abtalifeline.org.uk i Donate:
justgiving.com/abta
Thomas Cook charity
to close next year The Thomas Cook Children’s Charity is to close early next year, its board of trustees has announced. Donations from Cook customers and staff were the main source of income for the charity, which has handed out £1.2 million to projects supporting education, wellbeing and healthcare for children this year.
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