Cruise and escorted tour specialist, Riviera Travel, has promoted Jessica Payne to the role of business development executive.

She has worked in the contact centre for the past year, and before that spent five years overseas as a rep in Rhodes, Costa del Sol, Mallorca, Mexico, Thasos and Thailand.

Payne will manage a number of trade accounts across the UK, and will be looking to develop agents who want to start selling river cruise and touring holidays.

She will report to Tom Morgan, head of agency sales, UK & Ireland.

Riviera has made several trade-specific sales and business development appointments during the past two years, as the company continues to strengthen its relationships with its travel partners.

A number of recently-created vacancies in sales, customer service and administration are currently open.

Payne said: “I’m delighted to take on this new role and responsibilities, as the opportunities for agents to sell river cruise and touring holidays are clear.

“I’m really looking forward to helping grow our business as travel further opens up, and continuing the great work the team have delivered to support the trade.”