Sanders resigns from Teletext Holidays

Sanders resigns from Teletext Holidays

Teletext Holidays managing director Victoria Sanders is to leave the business in April having resigned.

Teletext Holidays managing director Victoria Sanders is to leave the business in April having resigned.

The announcement marks the end of her four years at the helm of the travel deals advertising platform which has been transformed in recent years to embrace the digital age.

Sanders, a columnist for Travolution’s sister publication Travel Weekly, oversaw a move into smart television and a management buy-out from previous parent A&N Media, the consumer division of Daily Mail & General Trust.

More contentiously for its advertisers it decided in 2011 to significantly cut the number of partners it worked with to just 15 in a bid to improve its service for them and its customers.

In January Teletext Holidays announced a fresh focus to weed out misleading pricing on the web with its turn of year campaign highlighting ‘real holidays, real prices’.

Sanders said she was looking forward to a new challenge and Teletext Holidays confirmed the search for a replacement was to start immediately.

“After eight years here, with four as managing director, it’s time for me to leave and take on a new challenge,” said Sanders.

“I’ve put a huge amount of energy into the business over the last few years and I’ve loved every moment.”

“Since I became managing director my focus has been firmly on revitalising the brand, building a talented and dynamic team and investing in market-leading technology taking the business from TV centric to the digital brand it is today.

“I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved as a team and I’m leaving the business in great shape for the future.”

Teletext Holidays was for two decades the go-to platform for holiday deals for UK consumers via its analogue television service known for its clunky ‘lego-brick’ graphics.

Many travel firms built their businesses on the back of this but this service closed in 2010 as digital television came in and Teletext has had to forge a new future online through its website and the next generation of smart televisions.

Under Sanders the business has undergone a huge transformation, something acknowledged at the Travolution awards in October 2011 when it won Rising Brand of the Year.

Victoria originally joined Teletext Holidays in 2004 as sales manager and was promoted to head of sales, then went on to become sales director before being appointed managing director in March 2009.

She was voted Woman of the Year in the 2011 Shine/People1st awards for her outstanding leadership and business achievement in turning Teletext Holidays around.