The group’s on-the-road team had been responsible for specific UK regions, covering multiple brands in the portfolio.

But since the group announced the merger of Western & Oriental and the Inspiring Travel Company brands back in June, the team has instead been assigned specific brands they now manage on a nationwide basis.

Jon Hardcastle has been appointed national relationship manager for the group’s specialist brands, including Rainbow Tours, Regent Holidays and ITC Sports, while Elaine Jones has taken up the same role with responsibility for its “inspiring brands”, including Inspiring Travel Company and Villa Select.

Business development manager Kym O’Brien and agency sales manager Bev Townend complete the team managed by agency sales director Lee Marshall, whose decision it was to restructure the team.

“The message we want to send to agents is our team has specialist knowledge and will happily share it with agents to help them secure sales,” said Marshall.

He explained ITC Travel Group’s specialist brands were able to offer quotes on a diverse range of destinations and tours combining multiple countries, such as travel to Africa or Latin America.

“They sell every part of the world from affordable to luxury,” he said. “Jon’s brands Regent, Rainbow and ITC Sports are all trade-friendly and everything is commissionable. We want to receive more enquiries from agents.”

Marshall added the group had enjoyed a strong start to the new financial year.

“Our specialist division has seen good year-on-year growth while we’ve seen robust performance on Inspiring Travel Company’s tailor-made and cruise sectors too,” he said.

“We’re pleased with trading from our agent partners and look forward to continued growth.”