The Chester-based luxury travel group purchased Western & Oriental’s travel brands, including Western & Oriental, Rainbow Tours, Regent Holidays and Villa Select, in 2015.
ITC said it had now moved to “tidy its brand portfolio”, with a new structure comprising two divisions: Inspiring Travel Company covering beach and tailor-made holidays, and a Specialist division encompassing Regent, Rainbow Africa and ITC Sports. The future of the Western & Oriental name is “under review”, with an announcement due in the coming weeks.
Lee Marshall, ITC’s agency sales director, told TTG: “Over time, the W&O brand will merge into the Inspiring Travel Company. We’re working on a transition plan and we will announce more details on that later.
“There’s a massive opportunity with our specialist brands but we have not given them enough airtime. That’s why we are restructuring the team to create a dedicated resource for our specialist brands, as well as luxury.”
However he added: “The tailor-made arm of our business in London and Norwich has been one of our strongest successes over the past year and there is absolutely no question mark over its future. We’re fully committed to growing this exciting and diverse area of our portfolio and we’re currently developing tailor-made programmes in brand new areas such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
"We’re investing heavily in fam trips and extensive product training to hone specialist knowledge so members of our sales team will be ready to expertly service trade enquiries once we introduce these destinations later in the year."
As part of the restructure, Sue Coupland, who had been territory sales manager for the south east, left the company this week. Marshall said Coupland’s decision to leave had allowed ITC to “repurpose our agency sales team” away from having one team covering all brands.
Elaine Jones has been appointed national sales manager for Inspiring Travel Company, while Jon Hardcastle takes the same role for the specialist division. Business development will be managed by Kym O’Brien, while Bev Townend takes responsibility for agency sales, including an expanded programme of trade activity.
Marshall said ITC was working to develop a programme for agents including dedicated brochures, more marketing collateral and a new incentive programme with Love2shop rewards being offered across all ITC brands for the first time.
ITC is planning to launch the full programme of activities at an event for 80 top agents and trade partners at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London on July 5.
“We have taken time to reflect on the market out there and now we’re re-engaging with our key partners,” explained Marshall.
He added that Villa Select will operate under the Inspiring Travel Company banner.
