Before we clock off for the Christmas Break, we’ve rounded up the last movers and shakers in the travel industry for 2017.

Ingrid Kocrijan is named the Director of Sales for G Adventures

G Adventures have appointed Ingrid Kocrijan as Director of Sales for the Australia and New Zealand, starting from January 2nd.Having worked in the Australian and New Zealand travel industry for over 10 years as Assistant Sales & Marketing Manager at Rail Plus Australia, Australasia Manager for Rail Europe and most recently as Commercial Director at Rail Plus, Ingrid brings a wealth of industry knowledge to the role.

As Director of Sales, a newly appointed role for the region, Ingrid joins National Sales Manager Matt Drummond, as well as a team of Global Purpose Specialists (GPS’s), whose collective focus is to provide outreach, education and sales support for the Australian and New Zealand travel trade.

Visit Sunshine Coast boosts international expertise with appointment of destination marketing specialist

Destination marketing expert, Samantha Dalla is Visit Sunshine Coast’s (VSC) new International Marketing Specialist. Based on the Sunshine Coast, Samantha will join the international team led by Rachel Meyer, Director of International Marketing (based in Singapore) and Stephanie Siebert (European based) trade representative. Her role will increase the Sunshine Coast’s international travel business whilst supporting local tourism operators to be internationally ready.

Samantha has most recently worked as an account manager with Gate 7 Pty Ltd managing tourism clients such as Visit California and PROMPERU within the Australian and New Zealand markets. She has also worked as a relationship manager for travel wholesaler, Chimu Adventures.

Samantha will start with the Regional Tourism Organisation on 18 December 2017. She replaces Azra Hadzic who has taken up an appointment with Tourism and Events Queensland.

Club Meds’ new appointments in the Pacific Marketing & Sales Team

Kassandra Scarlett will be in charge of Trade Marketing,and developing the awareness of Club Med within the Trade, create & animate the communities of travel agents and In Store boutiques, and support the Call Center in delivering a premium client experience.

Tenneal Baker will be in charge of Communication, PR & Partnerships. Tenneal is Australian and has held different positions managing Brand, Coms and PR for Australian hotel brands. She will be in charge of overseeing our coms strategy, accelerating Club Med’s brand presence in PR and on Social and through high profile partnerships.

The last new face in the team is Anne-Lise Vergnory who will be in charge of Online & Acquisition. Anne-Lise was previously in charge of online media partnerships within gMDT, where she proved her capacity to learn fast as well as her great motivation and positive attitude.

Kass, Tenneal and Anne-Lise are joining Marine Raynard who has joined the team in February 2017 as Content & Design specialist, a new position created last year.

Kellyn Smith Kenny is Hilton’s new Chief Marketing Officer

Hilton have appointed Kellyn Smith Kenny as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer from January 29, 2018. Kenny will oversee the enterprise marketing strategy and its portfolio of 14 industry-leading brands. She will also lead a high-performing team delivering creative marketing programs focusing on building meaningful relationships with guests.

Kenny was previously the Vice President, Marketing at Uber, where she led interdisciplinary marketing for the company’s most significant markets in the U.S. and Canada. As Senior Vice President, Marketing at Capital One, Kenny led marketing and brand strategy for the Consumer Banking division. While at Microsoft, she oversaw consumer-facing and retail marketing efforts in various store, consumer, and B2B roles.

Kenny holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, and a BA (Economics) from Colgate University. She will be based in Hilton’s global headquarters in McLean, Virginia and report directly to Jon Witter, Chief Customer Officer.