Travelocity / ZUJI expands Hotel Team in Asia Pacific

Travelocity has expanded its hotel team across Asia Pacific following the record success of its Preferred Hotels program in the region.

Grant Colquhoun has been appointed to the new position of director of hotels for Asia Pacific. He will be supported by two new regional managers plus a larger team of market managers and market coordinators based throughout the region.

“Many hoteliers will already know Colquhoun who helped grow the Travelocity hotel business since its inception in the region,” said Roshan Mendis, Travelocity’s APAC commercial director. “His depth of knowledge will enable the Travelocity hotel program to continue to transform the way Asia Pacific hotels are sold. His team stretches throughout the region to ensure hotels have excellent support where they need it.”

Colquhoun has almost 20 years experience in the travel industry. His roles have been strongly geared to developing relationships and understanding travel business drivers. Colquhoun has worked with Travelocity’s parent, the Sabre Holdings group of companies, for more than a decade including five years with Travelocity. He has relocated from Sydney to Singapore.

Other new positions in the team include two regional managers, Abdul Thinga in India and Alex Nieuwenhuys in Australasia. Most recently, Abdul was a consultant on major hospitality solutions with Infosys but prior to that was revenue management director for Taj Group in Bangalore. Alex has been a part of the Travelocity hotel team since its inception in Asia Pacific more than three years ago. Her proven skills as a networker, negotiator and thinker have taken her from market coordinator to market manager and now to her regional role.

Additional regional appointments include:

South East Asia: Two new market managers have been appointed for South East Asia, Stephane Thong and Louis Lew, both based in Singapore. Stephane’s previous position was managing hotel contracts for AirAsia while Louis joins the company from Wotif.com. Isabel Mah has also been appointed market coordinator.

In India, Aditi Sud and Amel Jo join as new market managers for Northern and Southern India respectively. Both come from a hotels background with Aditi working with the Taj Group in Bangalore and Amel with Leela Hotels in Mumbai. Yograj Kulkarni is the new market coordinator.

Australasia: Lauren Gainey joins the market manager team in Australia. A long term hotel team member, Lauren has most recently been focusing on bringing online hotel sales to ZUJI’s travel partners (business-to-business sites in Australia).

Japan: Atsushi Nazao has been appointed as a new market manager for Japan. Atsushi led an operations team within JTB Business Travel Solutions for many years after starting his career in tourism with the Westin Hotel in Tokyo.

Greater China: Jaime Wong is the new Greater China market coordinator.

Korea: Helen Lee has been appointed market manager, Korea. Helen has been with ZUJI’s Korean business (branded Nextour in Korea) for over three years. She was previously a hotel sales agent. Jinny Sun Woo has been promoted to manager, Hotel Outbound Sales, Korea.

More than 27,000 hotels participate in the Travelocity Preferred Hotel program globally; 2500 of these hotels are based in Asia Pacific.

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