Anne Lee has joined TTC Tour Brands as Trade Marketing Manager, perfect timing as travel ramps up and trade well and truly hits its stride.
Anne is an experienced tourism marketing and communications specialist with 18 years of experience. Her recent 12-year tenure at GTI Tourism saw her in destination marketing representing a variety of tourism boards in Australia. Her tourism marketing experience spans working with destinations across the USA, Asia, South Pacific, Africa and Europe delivering B2B and B2C marketing and communications strategies. Anne’s real passion lies within the B2B space and her experience in delivering trade marketing strategy, event management, travel agent communications and industry engagement will be bought to the forefront in her role at The Travel Corporation as Trade Marketing Manager for TTC Tour Brands.
TTC Tour Brands is proudly trade first and understands and nurtures strong and collaborative partnerships. Anne will be the key trade contact for the 5 prestigious travel brands that make up TTC Tour Brands; Contiki, Costsaver, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, and Luxury Gold.
Speaking of her new role Anne said, “I have been in the travel industry now for 18 years and do believe I have taken on the best job in the world working across these 5 amazing touring brands that offer itineraries across the world- covering the youth market and all the way through to luxury. We have such an amazing local industry here in Australia, that connects us to different people, cultures and the environment through travel. To me, this is such a privilege. I also believe that the travel industry can do so much good and TTC’s mission with Making Travel Matter with impactful Purpose is a key element of my profession that I want to be able to champion.”
TTC Tour Brands, Managing Director, Toni Ambler said “We are delighted to have Anne join TTC Tour Brands as Trade Marketing Manager as we continue our commitment to being easy to sell and easy to work with, with all of our trade partners. Marketing to reach new touring considerers and help them book their dream trip with our key partners will be Anne’s key focus as well as building out e-learning and wider trade engagement strategies.”
Speaking to Travel Monitor for this week’s Talking Travel, Anne began by saying “the travel industry is a wonderful one and many absolute legends in it. It’s been a tough couple of years for all and what an amazing resilient industry we are to be moving forward to open up the world to give people joy with travel once again.”
Find out what else Anne had to say in this week’s Talking Travel.
What does your job involve?
As the trade marketing manager for TTC Tour Brands (Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Cost Saver) my role includes relationship management, liaising and collaborating with all consortia partners to define and develop effective marketing and communications strategies across the 5 brands. I will be responsible for developing and implementing an engaging communications plan to communicate with our travel trade and frontline travel agents including cooperative campaigns, incentives, events & expos and digital communications.
How have you tackled the difficulties caused by COVID-19?
The pandemic has been so hard on the world and our industry and my approach to getting through was to keep communicating openly in both the workplace and personal life. Relationships and connections in our wonderful industry have always been my favourite part of my career and so good to have technology in place to be able to stay in touch. Then I got on a plane with my family as soon as possible early last year to go on an overseas holiday!
What do you enjoy most about your profession?
I have been in the travel industry now for over 18 years and do believe I have the best job in the world. From the local amazing industry we have here in Australia and then to be able to see the world and connect with different people, cultures and the environment is such a privilege. I also believe that the travel industry can do so much good and TTC’s mission of Making Travel Matter with impactful purpose is a key element of my profession I want to be able to champion.
What are the biggest challenges for you in your profession (outside of COVID-19)?
I think right now everyone is so overstretched and under the pump in all aspects of the industry and we do not know just yet what the new ‘business as usual’ is so we just still need to be mindful of this and be patient and continue to support each other.
What do you think are the biggest challenges the industry faces?
Well, we all know about the rise of costs in every aspect of life including travel so this may impact the way people travel and possibly how many trips were taken. Fulfilling demand as well when the industry is still not as staffed up as it was pre-pandemic.
What do you think will be the biggest game changer in the travel industry in the next 12 months?
Airline capacity increases and the stabilisation (hopefully) of flight prices.
What destination/travel trend do you think is the next big thing?
Destination wise Europe has been hot (and I don’t mean that heatwave they had last Europen summer!). Everyone is gunning to get there to capture the wonderful culture, people and historical elements as well as see friends and family again. I think that the consensus is if Aussies are travelling again that they are going full-on and booking epic bigger trips. I think that with more air capacity coming into play we will see the USA and Canada travel increase for this year again and other destinations such as South America and Africa also gain interest.
What are your thoughts on responsible travel and how do you try to implement this in your workplace?
Responsible travel is all about respecting people and the planet so we can all do this by being open-minded and considerate among our work colleagues and bringing best practices for sustainability into everyday life. I have my coffee cup (that gets reused multiple times by 10am thanks to my early bird daughter waking up before the sun), I pack a waste-free lunch box where possible and recycle. I am loving seeing the recycling initiatives at the TTC office in place with compost bins for food waste as well as different
Who inspires you most and why?
My daughter – her innocent look at life and the world and the way that she is already caring for the planet with wanting to pick up rubbish and put rubbish in the right recycling bins. Makes you realise that everything you do is for future generations and that inspires me to keep doing better and protect our planet.
What is your must-pack travel item(s)?
Passport and an open mind.
Who would you invite on your next holiday if you could choose anyone and where would you go?
I would love to take my daughter and nieces who are based in the UK on a safari to a conservancy in Kenya. I would love to show them the animals in their natural habitat and visit the land where the first people were said to originate from.
Contact Email: anne.lee@ttc.com
