Following her appointment as Fred. Holidays Director of Tour Operations in May 2023, Tricia Birmingham has carried out a strategic review of the entire operation and implemented a new structure that will ensure development and growth of both the tour operation and retail business units.
While the company will continue to offer a range of products including European and worldwide rail, river cruise, cruise, cruise and stay, tours, short breaks and long stay holidays, they will now trade as one tour operations team under the brand of Fred.\Holidays. The company will also continue to operate as General Sales Agent for Amadeus River Cruises, Pandaw River Cruises and American Cruise Lines.
To shape and prepare Fred.\Holidays for growth, Tricia has repositioned the team under five key areas and made several key appointments. The new and experienced senior tour operations team is now in place:
- Louise Cook is leading the newly formed Customer Contact Centre as Head of Customer Contact. The Customer Contact Centre is a united business area to focus on excelling in all areas of customer liaison including sales and service as well as providing administration services for the franchisees.
- Simon Chambers is taking the lead as Head of Product and will unite product and incorporate Cruise & Discover in order to create a range of tailor made travel arrangements, bespoke product and unique tours.
- A soon-to-be-announced, newly appointed Marketing Manager will lead a team to drive brand marketing and sales, via both consumer and trade.
- Laura Wilson is now Head of Business Development and leads a newly-created team, incorporating GSA and Cruise & Discover, to support the growth in trade engagement.
- Lorraine Brown takes the helm as Head of Business Travel & Flight Services with the Fred. Olsen Business Travel area repositioned as the Business Travel & Flight Services team. The team will continue to provide business travel and flight services to clients as well as internal aviation support for retail, franchisees and the tour operator.
With ambitious plans to increase tour operator market share and achieve a second consecutive record-breaking year of growth, Fred.\Holidays is continuing to invest in new staff with the initial focus being on bolstering support for the existing sales team, with two new members of the team already in place. The company is also recruiting for Product Support, Business Development Support and a Customer Service Administration Manager, with more roles to come in key areas such as Business Travel to enable the business to scale and grow.
Tricia Birmingham comments: “Over the last six months I spent a lot of time with the Tour Operator and Retail teams, as well as with our franchisees, and it was clear that we needed to do better, to evolve, provide the right support and work in closer collaboration to complement each other and fuel further support and growth. We have a portfolio of really exciting products that are creatively marketed and sold by a talented team of people. This new structure will provide us with a great base to build and strengthen our brand and product proposition, as well as increasing our agent following.”
