The Great Rail Journeys group has bolstered its leadership team with two new commercial hires. Rob Payne joins as Chief Commercial Officer from Papa Johns where he was most recently their UK MD. He has extensive experience in digital customer, for Best Western and Bupa. He will focus on driving digital change globally as well as growing the UK business. The business also welcomes Richard Macklin as Director of Escorted Product and Contracting. He has extensive experience in travel, most recently at Jet2, and will look to further enhance the product and customer experience in the escorted programme globally. Dave Riley GRJ Group CEO, said: "Rob and Rich are fantastic additions to the leadership team with both bringing a customer centric and digital first mindset to the organisation.” The Great Rail Journeys group has also appointed Neil Sabey and Paul Evans to new leadership roles. After joining GRJ in early 2023, Sabey steps up to Director of Cruise and Tour Management. He has extensive experience in both areas and the continued expansion of the GRJ river programme. Evans also joined the business in early 2023 and will step up to the role of Director of Go-to-Market and Change.  

  Great Rail Journeys was recently named ‘Best Escorted Tour Operator’ by The Times newspaper, garnering more than 280,000 votes among a diverse selection of nominees. The annual Travel Awards celebrates the best of the travel industry. This year, more than 100 brands and destinations were nominated by readers and influential industry leaders, including travel writers and editors at The Times and The Sunday Times.   Dave Riley, CEO at Great Rail Journeys, said:   “Awards like this mean a great deal to our team because it comes from our travellers and aspiring travellers. We have been single-mindedly focused on customer experience, so receiving this recognition is a celebration of all our hard work – from the teams developing and delivering the tours through to our dedicated tour managers who provide a market leading experience.”    Over the last 50 years, Great Rail Journeys has become an established voice in the travel space, providing expertise across the globe and meaningful destination knowledge that has inspired hundreds of thousands of journeys. Last year, Dave Riley was appointed as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, accelerating the brand’s growth and bringing attention to the customer experience.   This announcement builds on an impressive year of accolades, having also won Best Rail Operator at the Telegraph Travel Awards in July. Great Rail Journeys hopes to continue their winning streak at The British Travel Awards where they are nominated for Best Escorted Tour Operator.   Many thanks, Leah