Youtravel unveils appointments and relocates sales force

Youtravel.com has reaffirmed its commitment to the UK trade as its international sales force relocated to central London.

Youtravel.com has reaffirmed its commitment to the UK trade as its international sales force relocated to central London.

A number of new management appointments have also unveiled by the bed bank in which German’s fourth largest operator FTI took a majority stake in May.

The changes come as the international sales team relocated to London to work alongside the UK sales force, which will continue to work with the UK travel trade.

The closer collaboration between the two sales arms is designed to “cultivate synergies” and drive a renewed B2B focus.

The Youtravel brand name is being re-introduced on all aspects of the business.

Former Kelkoo EMEA sales and product director Damien Retureau has joined as international sales director to spearhead international sales expansion. He previously worked for Orbitz and lastminute.com and will work alongside UK head of sales Hannah Wheeler and group chief executive John Kent.

Laura Dryden is joining as head of HR and Nathalie Kouzi takes up the newly created position of public relations and new business development senior executive having worked for VisitBritain, the Cyprus Tourist Office and hotel groups in Europe and the US.

Chief operating officer Neil Bowen will also assume the role of managing director of the company’s Athens office, expanding his role in the group’s sister company, Aquis Hotels and Resorts.

The company will retain the recently created department of senior product managers and IT in Athens.

Kent said: “This new redeployment will enable us to target even more international markets as we continually expand the network of Youtravel.com.

“We remain committed to the UK trade and continue to offer our trade customers excellent prices and availability across a unique selection of resort hotels throughout the Mediterranean and beyond with more product being added to our range daily.

“The redevelopment is aligned with our sales strategy and our focus is to strengthen the existing business and further develop new markets.

“We will continue to fine-tune our strategy as necessary in order to meet today’s and tomorrow’s business challenges.”