Essential Guide to Travel

Laura leads ABTA’s Brand & Marketing team, as part of a job share with colleague Shelley Beresford.  

Before joining ABTA, she was Head of Marketing at a tech start up and prior to that, spent 15 years leading the Consumer and Trade Marketing teams at Virgin Atlantic.  

Laura has over 20 years of B2C and B2B marketing experience across small and large global brands and is passionate about consumer centric marketing and creating distinctive campaigns that bring products to life, particularly in the travel industry.

I’m a qualified Solicitor, working for easyJet holidays since easyJet group launched its holiday business in 2019.  My role involves supporting the business on a range of commercial, customer, marketing and regulatory matters.  Prior to that, I was Senior Legal Adviser at Thomas Cook Group.  My time at Thomas Cook spanned 20 years, in different locations and working in a variety of legal, compliance, customer service and quality assurance roles. 

Hazel is a sustainability advisor at ABTA with extensive experience in environmental regulation compliance and sustainable materials. She joined the company in  January 2023 and is passionate about promoting sustainable tourism practices. Hazel's expertise in sustainability has enabled her to work closely with ABTA members, helping them adopt environmentally responsible practices and make a positive impact on the industry. She is excited to contribute to a more eco-friendly future and to support the travel industry in adopting sustainable practices.

Oliver Clark joined ABTA as Public Affairs Manager in January 2024. He leads the organisation’s engagement with elected officials across all four UK nations, advocating for the travel industry and building relationships with parliamentarians from across the political spectrum to secure support for ABTA’s policy priorities. Oliver and the wider ABTA Public Affairs Team support members by helping them navigate parliamentary processes, stay informed on policy developments, and address both challenges and opportunities arising from the political landscape.

Matt Gatenby is Senior Partner at Travlaw, with 25 years of experience in the travel law industry. Matt is proud to serve a vast array of tour operators, travel agents, trade associations, insurers and their underwriters on most of legal needs they may have. In latter years Matt has lead the Commercial & Regulatory aspect of Travlaw’s work – a team highly regarded and ranked in Chambers and Legal 500.

A popular trainer and speaker, Matt is often asked to deliver seminars and appear on panel debates. In addition to Travlaw's own events, Matt has also spoken at ABTA's legal events as well as for ABTOT, AGTO, AITO, ECC-NET, UKInbound, the Business Travel Association and many more, as well as pure legal events such as the International Bar Association (IBA) global conference. Matt has also contributed to various travel media sources such as Travel Weekly, Travel Trade Gazette and BBC News as well as legal publications such as Travel Law Quarterly and Solicitors Journal and comments on industry issues in the wider press. 

So, for more information on how Travlaw services the travel and leisure industry, please see www.Travlaw.co.uk.

Diana started her travel career working for Flightbookers Ltd in 1999 before joining ABTA in 2000, where she worked for the Member’s Information Bureau. Her work within this role was where her interest in the legal aspect of travel began and her knowledge of the ABTA Code of Conduct was developed. In 2002, Diana changed roles to become Executive Officer where she investigated cases under the Code of Conduct and her legal training began, completing a Diploma in Law as well as a Paralegal Higher Certificate with NALP (National Association of Licensed Paralegal). Diana has worked both within the Customer Support Team and the Legal Services Team and has helped streamline the complaints process, from when ABTA receives a complaint to when it gets investigated. Diana is now the Code of Conduct Manager and advises members on all aspects of upholding the Code of Conduct.

Kirsty joined ABTA in June 2023 as Financial Protection Analyst. Kirsty looks after a portfolio of members helping them with their financial protection and ensuring they are compliant with the PTR’s. 

Heather is the Destinations Manager at ABTA, with responsibility for destination operations, health and safety, crisis management and incident management. She is one of ABTA’s key points of contact in the Destinations team where she coordinates activities in relation to health, safety, crisis and operational issues affecting destinations for ABTA, its Members and the FTO sub-committee.  She is also a key member of the on-call crisis response team.  

Heather has over 25 years travel industry experience. Prior to joining ABTA in 2015 she worked for a number of years for a major international airline in a range of operational roles, including crisis management.