The group, whose brands including Shearings Holidays, National Holidays and Coast & Country hotels, said the new name “aims to more clearly describe what the group offers”.
It added the name would provide “great clarity and visibility” to the business community, including future commercial partners, the travel trade and investment and financial community.
Specialist’s new strapline is “excellence through expertise”.
Chief executive Richard Calvert said: “Our change in name allows us to better portray what we do and show how we specialise and lead in different areas of travel and leisure.
“We offer holidays, hotel breaks, event and experiences to over 1.1 million customers a year as a group. Each of our brands are stand-alone entities in their own right, specialising in what they do, with a loyal customer following and we wanted to reflect this.
“Shearings Holidays is a marquee brand, synonymous with delivering great value holidays for the over 55’s and the UK’s largest escorted tour company.
“However, having it in the groups name often causes confusion, as people don’t grasp the scale and range of the operating companies within the group.
“We have 2600 team members, 45 hotels, multiple brands, products and destinations. Our new group holding company name should help us maximise the visibility to the business community of who we are, what were are about and where we are going.”
Following the rebrand, Specialist says it will continue to invest in its businesses and has plans to future proof its eight brands.
Other ongoing improvements include a multi-million pound refurbishment of its hotel portfolio, a new reservations system for Shearings Holidays due to go live in the next six weeks, a new group-wide CRM system and new workforce management system.
It also recently announced all its own-branded coaches will offer Wi-Fi and it is planning to roll out a new in-coach entertainment system across its entire fleet.
