Travel Trends

Rosie Apps is Managing Director of Ginger Juice, a digital marketing and social media agency specialising in travel and tourism. With over 15 years of experience in social media, she was an early adopter, recognising its transformative potential for brands. Since then, she’s been at the forefront of helping travel brands use social media to engage audiences and build lasting connections. Rosie joined Ginger Juice in 2017 and now leads the team with a fresh strategic vision and a practical, creative approach that focuses on results.

Her portfolio spans iconic global and domestic brands, including the London Eye, Royal Caribbean, and airports like Changi Singapore. She has also shaped social strategies for tourism boards including Japan (JNTO), South Africa (SAT), Fiji (Tourism Fiji), Saint Lucia (SLTA), and Macao (MGTO).

Phil has worked in travel PR and communications since the late-90s. From airline to cruise ship, high street to metasearch - if it moves in travel, the chances are he's PRed it. He now offers that wealth of experience to clients as a consultant communications strategist

Chris Brown is Head of Marketing for easyJet and easyJet holidays in the UK, overseeing the full marketing mix for both product lines in easyJet’s largest market.

He joined easyJet in 2021, bringing with him extensive experience from previous marketing leadership roles at British Airways, IAG’s low-cost airline brand LEVEL, and the online homeware retailer MADE.com
 

Graeme leads ABTA’s external and internal communications, including PR and media relations, marketing communications and brand stewardship. Joining ABTA in 2020, he was previously Head of Communications for Waitrose & Partners. He brings to the role more than 25 years’ experience of working with major organisations.

Ben is a Director at Epsilon who is working with travel marketers across cruise, holiday rental and tour operator brands to unlock the significant potential of direct mail as an incremental new customer acquisition channel.

Molly is the PR & Communications Manager for Online Travel Agent First Choice, which sees her looking after everything from media relations to thought leadership to influencer campaigns. In her spare time she also moonlights as an influencer and freelance content creator, working with brands including Time Out, Bumble and Indeed. 

Dean Harvey is a seasoned C-Suite marketer, renowned for crafting and accelerating impactful marketing strategies that enhance brand recognition. Recently, he has taken on the role of Marketing Director at Hotelplan UK, overseeing the Inghams and Santa's Lapland brands.

Prior to this position, Dean served as Marketing Director for Kuoni UK, where he led large marketing teams to achieve business growth and win numerous awards for innovative campaigns and brand excellence. His tenure at Kuoni spanned nearly seven years, during which he played a significant role in shaping the brand's marketing efforts, especially through creative content during challenging times like the pandemic.

Dean's extensive experience also includes roles as a Marketing Consultant for VIP SKI and a Brand Consultant for Llama. His expertise encompasses strategic planning, brand building, interactive marketing, and public relations, showcasing his ability to drive business growth through creative and forward-thinking leadership.

Andy helped set up Adido as an award-winning digital agency in Dorset in 2003. He spent the first few years primarily learning SEO from scratch and has since gone on to help develop an amazing digital marketing team working with some brilliant designers & developers at Adido HQ.
As CEO of Adido, Andy has a vast knowledge of all areas of digital marketing and is a regular blogger, contributor and presenter on all areas of digital. His most specific areas of expertise and interest are search marketing, travel marketing and future innovations in the digital world.
Andy has presented at numerous leading industry events including several ABTA events, The British Travel & Tourism Show, TTG Luxury, Travolution Summit and the Visitors Attraction Conference. He has also presented at industry events such as SES, SASCon, UK Search Awards, SMX, UK Search Awards and Digital Gaggle as well as hundreds of business groups across the UK. He has also been asked to comment on digital trends for the likes of Econsultancy, Sky News, The FT, The Guardian, Virgin and The Internet Marketing Podcast.
 

Robbie Hodges is Strategy Lead at Globetrender, the UK’s leading travel trend forecasting agency and magazine. He began his career on the travel desk at The Telegraph, reporting on innovation across the industry – from snail farms in Peru to virtual reality group holidays – before joining global consumer trends firm TrendWatching. At Globetrender, Robbie helps a broad range of clients, from Hilton to Amadeus, identify emerging shifts in traveller behaviour and translate them into strategic insights, marketing opportunities, and future-focused initiatives. His writing has appeared in The Times, SUITCASE Magazine, and Condé Nast Traveller, among others.

Sandra Ishmael is Director UK at the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions. She started at the tourist board in 2006 as Consumer Marketing Manager and took over the reins as Director in 2011. Sandra’s career after university started in one of the buying departments at Marks and Spencer’s Head Office in London. She then took the decision to move overseas to Saint Lucia (Caribbean) and worked for one of the leading marketing and PR agencies on the island. Upon returning to the UK, Sandra worked in the marketing departments for both Garuda Indonesia (airline) and Sandals and Beaches Resorts, before moving onto her current employer. Sandra is also fluent in written and spoken Finnish.

Alejandro Jaramillo is ProColombia’s Director in the United Kingdom and for the European region. ProColombia is the Colombian government agency responsible for promoting the country’s exports, foreign investment, and tourism worldwide. He is a lawyer from Universidad del Rosario and holds a Master’s in International Law and Economic Policy (IELPO LL.M) from the University of Barcelona. Previously, he served as Senior Investment Advisor at ProColombia, where he co-founded the Investment Strategy for Sustainable Development and led efforts to attract European investment to Colombia. He also worked as an advisor to the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participating as a negotiator in several multilateral forums, and has lectured at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at Universidad del Rosario

Suzanne is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Princess Cruises for UK & Europe, where she has led the marketing & e-commerce, CRM & insights, and PR & events teams for over 11 years. In her role, she drives brand growth, customer engagement, and strategic innovation.  

With a career spanning more than a decade in the travel and hospitality sector, she previously served as Head of Marketing for Sandals Resorts. Her expertise lies in creating impactful marketing strategies that blend data-driven insights with creativity, ensuring meaningful connections with customers and sustained business growth.

Suzanne has previously spoken at ABTA, the DMA and the World Travel Market.

Michelle Laverick is a highly experienced senior marketer with nearly 30 years in the travel industry, known for developing and leading impactful marketing strategies that drive growth and elevate brand presence. She currently serves as Head of Sales & Marketing at Jules Verne, where she spearheads the execution of the brand’s refreshed identity and oversees consumer and trade marketing strategies across the company’s award-winning tours.

Prior to joining Jules Verne, Michelle was Commercial Director at Marketing Radar, helping travel brands enhance customer engagement through data-led insight and automation. Her extensive career includes leadership roles with HF Holidays, Collette, Wendy Wu Tours, Explore, and Inghams.

Passionate about supporting women in travel, Michelle has been on the board of the Association of Women Travel Executives (AWTE) since 2018 and it currently in the position of Chair. Away from work, she is an adventurer and endurance athlete, enjoying mountain trekking, open water swimming, and competitive masters swimming.

Debbie has over 35 years’ industry experience, mainly in travel, and including 12 years in the broader "silver" sector. Her roles have included Managing Director of Crystal Holidays, and at the helm of award-winning villa specialist CV Villas and its sister company Ski Verbier.

Debbie founded Silver Travel Advisor in 2011, the information, reviews and advice website for mature travellers, which was voted Best Travel Reviews website at the British Travel Awards in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

In 2021, with Silver Travel Advisor moving to new ownership, she widened her experience in the silver sector, and set up the Silver Marketing Association with a team of industry veterans. She is passionate about ethical and responsible marketing to older consumers, and calling out ageism, which is something she now witnesses first hand!

In 2024, Debbie was awarded the AWTE Outstanding Achievement Award which celebrates an individual who has demonstrated exceptional excellence and accomplished remarkable feats within the travel industry.

Debbie has been Chair for Dementia Adventure since 2022, and keeps a strong connection with the travel industry as a non-executive director of Bailey Robinson, Real Holidays & Villa Collective.

With 3 decades experience of luxury travel, including 20 years at board level, Lee has worked with 3 leading luxury tour operating brands in that time.

Following a two year career sabbatical, he joined Carrier as an independent consultant in 2021 and formally joined their leadership last year to oversee their award-winning trade strategy. 

Starting his career on the counter with Thomas Cook in 1985, Lee is a fiercely passionate advocate of the travel agent model and is proud to be part of a business that champions those who craft luxury travel experiences.

Outside of his working life, Lee is passionate about historic cars and collaborated on his first book, recognized by the Royal Automobile Club as Best Motoring Title 2024.

Bruce is also the founder of Ginger Juice, an award-winning social media agency specialising in B2C campaigns and training for travel and tourism brands.
Bruce Martin is also the CEO and founder of Travel Gossip, a leading travel trade media brand offering B2B digital marketing, AI-powered eLearning, rewards, events and home to the UK’s most active travel trade community via the Travel Gossip Facebook group

With a career spanning senior roles in marketing, operations, recruitment, eLearning, and tour operations, Bruce brings deep industry expertise and remains passionate about driving innovation and connection within the travel industry.

Rich has 20+ years research experience working within both large and small research agencies. Over 13 of those years have been at YouGov where he is a Research Director within the Consumer Insights Team. He has worked across a multitude of sectors with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, specializing in consumer and retail insight. He has had specific experience in the Travel and Leisure sector, working specifically with brands on market assessments, tracking and campaign evaluation.

Lottie Norman is Chief Marketing Officer of The Travel Corporation’s Tour Brands Marketing Lab, the in-house agency powering global marketing for Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, and Costsaver. With 18+ years of experience, she has helped shape the future of guided travel, from building cultural relevance with Contiki to repositioning Trafalgar with its “Tour Differently” platform. Passionate about where creativity meets commercial impact, Lottie champions marketing that inspires travellers while driving business growth.

Neil began his career in the mid-90s initially completing a management training course with a luxury hotel group.  He has since worked with DMCs in different countries and tour operators in sales, operations and product roles, and has spent the last 15 years working specifically in Growth and B2B Business Development.  Neil is passionate about touring and really experiencing and getting to know destinations, and is a big believer in giving back to communities which you visit.  He joined Exoticca in 2023, tasked with introducing the brand to the trade in the UK.

Joanna Reeve is the is the General Manager UK & Ireland at Intrepid Travel. Having joined Intrepid more than 12 years ago, coming from a career in TV and media, Reeve has held various roles, including leading the company’s tailor-made and private groups division and heading up trade sales. She is now responsible for providing leadership in the region, implementing strategic plans, managing day-to-day operations, and ensuring the company achieves its growth ambitions in the UK and Ireland markets.   

With over 30 years of experience, Brian Young’s career in the travel sector has taken him from a bright-eyed 19 year old club rep to Managing Director of G Adventures across the EMEA region. Brian joined the global adventure operator in March 2015. His own entrepreneurial background as the founder of On Holiday Group and Holiday Taxis has equipped him to lead his team of over 80 office staff, continuing to challenge the industry, set trends and cement G Adventures the leader in adventure travel.

As communications Director for specialist travel group DERTOUR UK, Rachel oversees internal and external communications for 11 specialist travel brands, including Carrier, CV Villas, Kuoni, Journey Latin America and Solmar.

Before moving into her corporate role, she Communications Director for luxury worldwide travel company Kuoni for 10 years,  and made regular appearances on television and radio as well as hosting the company’s own internal news programme on a weekly basis.    

She’s worked and travelled throughout Australasia, the USA, Canada, the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Africa and Europe and is well-versed in talking to the media about destination trends.

Throughout her 30-year career in travel Rachel has worked for companies of all shapes and sizes, from large mass-market companies to small, independently-run start-ups and is listed at number three on the latest PR Week Powerbook of the UK’s most influential PR professionals in travel list.  

For six years, she ran the press office at TUI UK dealing with a wide brief ranging from crisis response to brand campaigns and was a regular on radio chat shows and TV sofas.

She’s trained as a mental health first aider and also trained as a Health Coach, building on her interest in wellbeing in the workplace.    She has taken a keen interest in sustainable tourism throughout her career, working as a consultant for the Travel Foundation for many years, is an ambassador for the DERTOUR Foundation, which supports and funds sustainable projects around the world and most recently joined the board of ABTA LifeLine. 

Tom is Managing Director of Wild Dog Design, an independent B-Corp agency that delivers strategy, brand and digital for specialist travel companies. Prior to joining Wild Dog in 2018 Tom spent nearly 20 years in media agencies as a digital strategist, helping bluechip clients navigate the ever-changing and growing digital landscape since the early dotcom years through the inception of web2.0 and social media, through to the mass adoption of digital across all channels.

At Wild Dog Tom is keen to bring his grounding in research and strategy to bear for travel companies, commissioning regular research projects into user behaviour.