ITC sets up trade ties with direct brand

Elite Travel Concierge was launched last year by Geoff Moss, the original founder of Elegant Resorts, as a high-end B2C travel service, and is now plugged into ITC’s bonding, but is run autonomously under the management of David Gearie.

Jo-Anne Fenton has joined Elite in a role as brand ambassador, aimed at bringing travel agents to book with the company.

Fenton also used to work at Elegant Resorts, leaving her role there as agency sales manager last year, and she joins several other members of Elegant’s former team who left to join Moss’s new business.

Fenton’s move signals the Elite brand will now “work very closely” with a select group of agents nationally.

“This is a great opportunity to work with Geoff Moss and my old team, and to develop fantastic relationships with my agency friends from over the years,” said Fenton.

“It’s the perfect opportunity to nurture the special relationships I had and work together with the Elite team to ensure their [agents’] clients are looked after.”

Lee Marshall, ITC Travel Group’s director of agency sales, said while Elite had originally been envisaged as “very much a B2C channel”, it had become “highly apparent from recent feedback” that the team was also held in high regard by agents.

He said it “made sense” to now make it a brand agents could work with, via Fenton.

“There is a great demand from agents to work with her, so it’s a gift for us to have her with the company,” Marshall said.

“She has access to an audience that ITC didn’t have. Those agents also respect the vast experience of the rest of the team at Elite, but might not previously have considered ITC’s brands.”

Marshall added Elite was a fitting complement to the group’s brands, which includes Regent Holidays, ITC Sports and Rainbow Tours.

“We have seen genuinely strong growth on the more experiential, tailor-made product; so much so that we will be launching new brochures under the Inspiring Travel Company brand that focus on destinations such as Canada,” said Marshall.