ABTA’s Angie Hills, Head of Destinations; Vicki Wolf, Head of Education & Career Development; and Emma Brennan, Head of Media and Communications have all been named in the 2024 Women In Trade Associations Powerlist.
Announced on International Women’s Day (8 March 2024) and in its second year, the Powerlist celebrates inspirational women working in trade associations who champion their sector, support colleagues and always deliver for their members.
Leading the Destinations team at ABTA, Angie Hills oversees the key support and advice given to members during a crisis as well as providing leadership and advice on non-competitive matters, including health, safety, security and operations in destinations. Last year’s fast-moving crisis situation of the wildfires in Rhodes and Corfu saw Angie and her team provide a unique forum to help ABTA members and support information exchange between ABTA travel businesses, Greek and UK authorities and other government departments.
Angie commented: “Being named on the Powerlist is a wonderful endorsement of our work at ABTA to support our members not just during a crisis but with other important aspects of their business. I’m delighted to lead such a strong team of female professionals to help our members when they need us most.”
Vicki Wolf is a leading expert on education and careers in the sector. Following the Government’s announcement to de-fund post-16 education options for those wishing to pursue a travel and tourism qualification, Vicki was on the team that brought together a working group of both industry and education experts to identify a solution which is now subject to regulatory approval.
Vicki explained: “I’m passionate about giving youngsters the necessary training to develop skills so they can enjoy a rewarding career in the travel industry. Backed by a dedicated team here at ABTA, I’m delighted, that appearing on the Powerlist will showcase the progress we have made for post-16 education options in travel to continue.”
A high-profile trade association spokesperson, Emma Brennan, Head of Media and Communications at ABTA is often featured on national TV and radio representing issues affecting ABTA members. Summer 2023 saw Emma leading ABTA’s media response to two major tourism crises during peak season; the wildfires in Rhodes and Corfu, and the air traffic outage over the August bank holiday weekend. During the initial three-day ‘breaking news’ period around the wildfires, Emma gave more than 20 TV and radio interviews, dampening down speculation and communicating the facts on behalf of ABTA members.
