The Travel Corporation has appointed Rachel Coffey as sales and business development director for four of its award-winning guided holiday brands - Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Costsaver and Luxury Gold – in the UK and Ireland.

Coffey will be responsible for the overall business development of these strategically important brands within the TTC portfolio, nurturing existing relationships and developing new meaningful partnerships with the UK trade, which is core to the business’s growth objectives.

She will lead a sales and marketing team of ten, a singular salesforce which was created to strengthen agency support and allow the trade to more easily do business with the world’s leading guided holiday brands.

She will report jointly in to Gavin Tollman, global chief executive of Trafalgar and Costsaver, and Ulla Hefel Böhler, global chief executive of Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold.

Tollman commented: “We were very impressed by Rachel’s achievements, ambition and knowledge of the UK trade and have no doubt that our business in this market will be in extremely capable and dynamic hands. 

“Rachel joins us after a very positive start to the year, with the brands she is representing showing double digit year on year growth, so we are looking forward to her leadership building on this and taking us to the next level.”

Coffey joins from G Adventures, where she was director of sales for UK & Ireland, heading up the company’s largest trade sales team globally.

She started her career in the aviation industry, graduating as an Aerospace Engineer before joining Virgin Atlantic, where she was one of just three candidates chosen on to the company’s prestigious development programme.

This culminated in a number of senior positions including country manager for the west of Africa, based in Nigeria, where she increased the business by 20 per cent.

Hefel Böhler added: “We took a very careful and considered approach to this appointment and Rachel ticked all our boxes, with her proven track record in business development and her fantastic industry contacts book, coupled with her passion, drive and personable approach.

“I can’t wait to welcome her to our Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold leadership team.”

Coffey will start her new role on March 11th.

Coffey said: “I am hugely excited by this role, not only because of the fantastic opportunity to deliver growth for these award-winning brands, but also because I feel a real connection to their core values and those of the Travel Corporation as a whole.

“The company has innovation, sustainability and a commitment to delivering excellent customer service absolutely at its heart.

“It’s my job now to take that industry-leading product to market, with our primary focus continuing to be on working closely with our valued travel trade partners and I look forward to continuing to build on those successful relationships.”