A new leadership team has been created at Teletext Holidays as the business aims to aggressively grow its online presence over the next few years.

The new board structure comes as the company announces record online holiday searches during the first quarter of 2012.

New to the board is technology entrepreneur Dr Daniel Lee, currently CEO and co-founder of Artirix, a company which specialises in next generation search technology which has been adopted by media groups and publishers across the globe. 

Before founding Artirix, Daniel founded and managed free to list property search engine Globrix.com which reached 1.5 million users within 18 months of launch. 

Daniel Lee joins the Teletext Holidays board as part of a five-strong team geared towards accelerating the business’s growth on the online leisure travel space and through mobile channels.

The other new person to join the board is Jane Hendy who has been appointed finance director. 

Daniel and Jane join existing board members Chris Letcher, chairman, Victoria Sanders, the firm’s managing director and marketing director Mark Bloxham.  All five are also now shareholders in the business.

Victoria Sanders, Teletext Holidays’ managing director, said: “This is a very dynamic and entrepreneurial team with an impressive blend of knowledge spanning search technology, online marketing and commercial knowledge of the travel industry.  We have deliberately kept the senior team to a core group of talented individuals with the right skills to drive the business to the next level.”

With more than 4.5 million holiday searches during the first quarter of 2012, the focus has been firmly on delivering online traffic to the Teletext Holidays website which is 5% up year on year and is a record for the company.

The rise in online holiday searches gives a strong indication that people are still intending to book an overseas break this year despite a squeeze on household incomes.

There’s been an even bigger shift towards all-inclusive holidays as Britons continue to seek value for money breaks and plan their budgets.  More than 52 per cent of all holiday searches on the Teletext Holidays site are for all-inclusive trips, a 10 per cent rise since last year.

The highest volume of searches are the June half term, which coincides with an extended bank holiday break alongside the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Victoria Sanders added: “The Teletext Holidays brand is synonymous with great value deals and has a very loyal online fan base built up over many years but it is growing rapidly attracting new customers daily.”

“The brand has long been connected with the television text service but we are not leaving our television roots behind.  We continue to lead the travel industry with internet connected television technology with brands such as Samsung.  But it is online and mobile where we see the biggest opportunity and both these ares will be the big drivers for us going forward.”

“In a value-driven market where customers are looking for the very best deal on their holiday the Teletext Holidays brand is coming into its own.”