Organisations & Operators,

CWT has appointed Courtney Mattson to the role of acting chief financial officer.
She will also become a member of the executive leadership team.
Immediately prior to this she was global treasurer and deputy chief financial officer.
At the same time, Patrick Andersen has been appointed president and chief commercial officer, while Niklas Andreen has taken up the role of chief operating officer.
The changes follow the appointment of Michelle McKinney Frymire as chief executive of the company earlier this month.
“We have an incredibly talented leadership team globally, and I am delighted that this continues to be reflected in these appointments,” said Frymire.ADVERTISEMENT“We remain committed to our proven growth strategy, focused on our industry-defining, successful business-to-business approach, which we believe is a true differentiator in business travel management.
“Courtney, Patrick, and Niklas are all key partners in that journey along with the balance of our executive leadership team.”
Mattson joined CWT as treasurer in November 2018, from Mosaic, a public company based in Minneapolis, where as treasurer she was responsible for the company’s capital markets, insurance and treasury operations functions.

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The £2.5 billion in rent debt hanging around the neck of the hospitality industry is a threat to the future of thousands of businesses and over 330,000 sector jobs, new analysis by UKHospitality has revealed.ADVERTISEMENTA new survey of members, found that resolving the rent debt issue is critical to ensuring the future health of a sector that pre-pandemic accounted for ten per cent of UK employment.
As part of its submission the government, UKHospitality highlighted that more than half of operators surveyed said they have not had a rent reduction from their landlord, despite prolonged periods of closure and over a year of punitive trading restrictions.
Other key findings include:

Some 52 per cent have not been given any extension to pay rent.
A total of 73 per cent are either unable or do not know how they can pay their rent arrears.
Some 40 per cent have not been able to reach a deal with their landlord over rent concessions.

If the current protections that are in place are removed this summer, the analysis estimated that a sixth of the remaining hospitality workforce, equivalent to 332,000 jobs, could be lost.
This would be in addition to the hundreds of thousands of jobs already lost during the course of the pandemic.
Kate Nicholls, UKHospitality chief executive, said: “Our survey shows that while a proportion of operators have been able to strike a deal with their landlords on payment of rent debt, for many there have been no concessions and little engagement on the issue.
“The issue of rent debt must be resolved in a way that shares the burden as businesses simply cannot be expected to pay their rent arrears in full.
“This is why the government must take affirmative action to help hospitality rebuild and play its part in the economic recovery.
“There has to be a sharing of the pain caused by lockdowns and trading restrictions.”

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Luxury small group tour specialist Cox & Kings has launched its small group tours 2022-23 preview brochure early, on the back of consumer demand.
The new brochure includes a globe-spanning selection of the most popular small-group tours – spaces on which are already filling up as confidence in travel returns.
The new brochure can be read online here. ADVERTISEMENTThe company reports longer lead times for bookings, an increase in demand for tours including arts and culture as well as solo travel.
Kerry Golds, managing director of Cox & Kings, commented: “Cox & Kings have been pioneering travel for over 260 years – our small group tours are best in class.
“With pent up demand and limited capacity at peak travel times, we recognise the desire for travellers to secure their tour spot early.
“Our clients are telling us they wanted to make up for lost time and ensure they didn’t miss out.”

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The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its travel advice for a number of destinations, potentially clearing the way for the restart of travel.
The government hopes international tourism can resume on May 17th, with details expected in the coming days on which countries are considered safe.
Ahead of the announcement, the FCDO is no longer advising against non-essential travel to the Canary Islands, five Greek islands, most of Portugal, Malta and Israel.ADVERTISEMENTThe Canary Islands include Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura.
Greek islands with exemptions to the do not travel warning are Rhodes, Kos, Zakynthos, Corfu and Crete.
Each destination has seen success in efforts to vaccination residents against Covid-19, with official stating the newly revealed exemptions are “based on the current assessment of Covid-19 risks”.
The FCDO still advises against travel to the rest of Spain and Greece, and the autonomous Portuguese archipelago, the Azores.
The US Virgin Islands has also been given an exemption.

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The United Nations World Tourism Organisation has sought to served as the sector’s global voice as the tourism ministers of the G20 nations met to devise a way forward for an inclusive, resilient and sustainable recovery.
Upon assuming presidency of the G20, Italy has drawn on UNWTO data to highlight the impact the pandemic has had on tourist numbers globally and how this translates into lost jobs and revenues, as well as lost opportunities for social development.
Addressing the meeting, UNWTO secretary general, Zurab Pololikashvili, stressed the continued need for coordination at the very highest level, in order to advance “common, harmonised criteria for the easing of travel restrictions, and for increased investment in systems that support safe travel, including testing on departure and on arrival”.
With the crisis far from over, the secretary general welcomed the G20 Rome Guidelines for the Future of Tourism and called for “schemes aimed at supporting the survival of tourism jobs and businesses to be sustained and, wherever possible, expanded, especially as millions of livelihoods continue to be at risk”.
Italy minister of tourism, Massimo Garavaglia, outlined the G20’s priorities, including safe mobility, supporting tourism jobs and businesses, building resilience against future shocks, and advancing the green transformation of the sector. ADVERTISEMENTFurthermore, the ministers recalled that the current crisis represents an opportunity to rethink and restart tourism, with an emphasis on guiding the sector towards greater sustainability.
In addition to ensuring the safe restart of international travel and supporting jobs and businesses, the G20 ministers committed to taking action in driving the digital transformation of the sector, with particular reference to ensuring everyone has fair access to the opportunities that will come from greater innovation, and in promoting more investment in green tourism infrastructure.
The new UNWTO Recommendations for the Transition to a Green Travel and Tourism Economy, developed in partnership with the G20 Tourism Working Group, were identified as a key resource for advancing.
The recommendations present the main lines of action and showcase frontrunning initiatives of tourism businesses and destinations leading the way in achieving greater sustainability while also outlining steps that can help tourism recover from the worst crisis in its history safely and responsibly.
UNWTO will continue to work with the Italian G20 Presidency as well as the previous and forthcoming presidencies, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia, in advancing the contribution of tourism to the G20 objectives.

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Fisher appointed marketing director with Saga

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Hannah Fisher has joined Saga Travel as its new marketing director.
Fisher brings with her a wealth of experience gathered over more than 20 years in the marketing industry.
She specialises in marketing strategy and digital transformation, having most recently worked for Dentsu International leading clients Honda, Camelot and TSB.
Prior to that Fisher held senior marketing roles at More Than, Sky and Direct Line.
She will be responsible for the development and delivery of the marketing strategy for Saga Travel and will lead the implementation of greater digital capability to drive a truly integrated approach to marketing communications.ADVERTISEMENTNick Stace, chief executive of Saga Travel, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Hannah’s experience to the Saga Travel team.
“Her excellent background with strong consumer brands will provide the strategic rigour to ensure that Saga leads the pack in both retaining current customers and attracting new ones.
“This is a critical time for the travel industry and we’re experiencing tremendous customer demand for cruise holidays, which has seen the early sailings already fully booked, so Hannah is joining us at a time of huge growth and opportunity.”
In addition to her new role at Saga Travel, Fisher is an active mentor and member of Bloom UK, which aims to lift up the next generation of female leaders and in her spare time, she volunteers as an NHS first responder.

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ABTA has promoted Rachel Jordan to the role of director of membership and financial protection. 
The move sees Jordan take on overall responsibility for membership onboarding and management, in additional to her existing financial protection role, starting today.
Her enhanced brief comes as John de Vial, the current director of financial protection and financial services at ABTA, moves to focus on major initiatives supporting the delivery of the strategic plan.
Both Jordan and John de Vial report to ABTA chief executive, Mark Tanzer. 
Tanzer said: “Our members are ABTA’s beating heart and in Rachel they will have an extremely capable new director of membership and financial protection, supporting them as we move into travel’s restart and beyond.”ADVERTISEMENTABTA has also announced that Alice Catterall, its director of partnerships and events, is to leave in the summer to take on a managing director position in the private sector.
Tanzer added: “Alice has been an excellent leader of a varied and vibrant industry events programme that is highly valued not just by our members but the wider industry too.
“The successful transition from in-person events to virtual formats during the pandemic has enabled ABTA to stay in touch and relevant to our members.”

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The UK Civil Aviation Authority has launched a consultation on ATOL.
The government body said the project will consider evolving the regulatory framework to improve financial resilience.
At present, some ATOL protected travel businesses use their customers’ advance payments for their holidays to fund their own operations, before the customers have had their holidays.
This is a long-standing practice in the industry, but in some cases it may fail to incentivise sufficiently robust financing arrangements.
The proposed changes will look at new approaches that would reduce the risk posed to consumers should any individual travel business cease to trade, the CAA said.ADVERTISEMENTThe Covid-19 pandemic has also further highlighted how challenging it was for some businesses to pay customers the refunds to which they were entitled.
Paul Smith, director at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said: “The ATOL scheme exists to protect consumers, and it is therefore right that we work to continually strengthen its financial resilience.
“Following several large ATOL failures in recent years, we have become concerned about the impact of businesses using consumers’ money as a source of funding working capital.
“That’s why we are seeking people’s views on changing these arrangements to further enhance ATOL protection of customers’ money.”
The consultation will close on July 30th and the UK Civil Aviation Authority will then consider recommendations ahead of launching a second consultation making specific proposals in early 2022.
“The travel industry can be reassured that we understand the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on their finances.
“We will take full account of the need to allow industry to adjust to any new arrangements that will be implemented following the overall consultation process,” concluded Smith.

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