Riviera Travel appoints operations director

Noeleen Pritchard has joined Riviera Travel in the newly created role of operations director.

She will be part of the operator’s executive team and will oversee operations, its contact centre including sales and customer experience, and tour management.

Prior to joining Riviera, Pritchard was operations director at Great Rail Journeys for seven years. She was formerly a manager in Capita’s travel division for 11 years.

As part of Riviera’s bolstered senior management team, Simon Michaelides’ role has evolved from chief customer officer to chief customer and strategy officer.

He now has overall responsibility for business strategy, customer insight and analytics, innovation, brand, marketing, ecommerce and digital.

In addition, Robin Shaw, who joined Riviera as chief operating officer, is now chief commercial officer.

He is now tasked with driving Riviera’s commercial capability and agenda, including for supply-side relationships and deals, planning and building product, and margin management.

Pritchard said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining the Riviera team. I look forward in helping the company to achieve further growth, whilst continuing to deliver the wonderful experiences of our Riviera holidays.”

Phil Hullah, Riviera Travel chief executive officer, said: “Noeleen brings extensive travel operations knowledge to Riviera and we are thrilled she has joined us.

“We are seeing strong customer demand for our river cruises and escorted tours, so now is the ideal time to really focus on our long-term growth.

“Noeleen’s addition to the executive team, together with the wider changes, will ensure that we are best placed to understand and respond to changing customer needs.”