Collette unveils sales team additions

A new sales team has been confirmed by escorted tours specialist Collette following the appointment of Ray Steward as head of sales last autumn.

Steward was tasked with structuring a flexible workforce to help continue to improve engagement with agents.

Amanda Elgie, business development manager for the north of England and Scotland, joins from AmaWaterways.

Cheryl Thompson, central England business development manager, previously worked for Wendy Wu Tours and Hoseasons and moves to Collette from Virgin Wines.

Southern England business development manager Faye Anderson brings experience from Thomas Cook and Medhotels.

Priti Gadhia takes up the newly-created role of groups specialist business development manager from the Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board and Wild Frontiers.

Managing director Carl Burrows said: “This is a great opportunity to reinforce the changes and evolution that Collette has undertaken over the past 18 months to position itself as a trade-friendly tour operator.

“Our newly-created team is well known by many of our existing trade partners and when combined with their energy and focus, I am really excited about our future, especially with the wealth of experience and established relationships they have brought to the business.

“It has already been a record-breaking start to 2017 and I am confident that we will continue to build on our early successes and surpass our growth expectations with ease.”

Steward said: “I am delighted that we have managed to secure such a fantastic and dynamic trade sales team.

“We deliberately took our time to find the right people to fulfill the roles and we now have people with the necessary experience and passion for driving our trade sales.

“With Faye, Amanda, Cheryl and Priti now in place I am confident that we can not only continue to demonstrate our support to the trade but also find new opportunities in the market and expand the number of trade partners who we work with.”