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Travelzest poaches Expedia retail chief
Online travel group Travelzest has recruited Expedia.co.uk retail director Robin Sutherland to head its relaunched holiday.co.uk arm.
Holiday.co.uk is seen as central to the specialist group’s online distribution policy and Sutherland brings with him experience gained as customer relationship manager at TheFirstResort.com and market analysis roles for British Airways, Norton Rose, Northern & Shell, BPI Group and Farmfoods.
He joins Travelzest on April 23 after five years at Expedia where he was director of customer analytics before becoming director of retail.
He was instrumental in shaping Expedia’s retail and merchandising strategy and defining its dynamic package promotion model, according to his new employers. Sutherland built the analytics function in the UK from scratch and optimised marketing spend from mid-2003, which resulted in significant year-on-year growth for 2004.
The recently relaunched holiday.co.uk and flight.co.uk websites offer enhanced content and functionality.
Holiday.co.uk moves from being a third party package holiday distributor to a full service online holiday portal providing dynamic packaging and access to the content of the group’s tour operators.
Sutherland said: “I was looking for a new challenge and believe there is an exciting opportunity at Travelzest to create something different that offers travellers and holidaymakers a wide range of choices, including the ability to book specialist, tailored holidays on the internet.”
Travelzest chief executive Chris Mottershead said: “We are delighted to have attracted someone of Robin’s calibre to lead the ongoing development of our holiday.co.uk online portal.
“Robin’s experience in the online travel market and his understanding of consumer behaviour will be invaluable in further defining the strategy for this business and driving traffic towards the group’s specialist tour operators’ websites.”
by Phil Davies
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