| Hitchen to lead CruiseHQ

FLIGHT Centre Travel Group (FCTG) has appointed Caroline Hitchen (pictured) as General Manager of its newly established CruiseHQ wholesale division (CW breaking news).

Hitchen will be responsible for the new dedicated B2B cruise wholesaler (CW 30 Aug), which will launch with exclusives and a curated offering of packages, building the best rates with wholesaler airfares, and pre and post land and touring.

She will be tasked with positioning CruiseHQ as “a new age trade B2B model” for travel advisors across the FCTG network of brands and partners, including the independents division.

Hitchen has a strong background in the travel industry, having most recently led Express Travel Group’s cruise wholesaler Creative Cruising for four-and-a-half years.

She has also enjoyed stints with Pan Pacific Hotels Group, The Travel Corporation, and Destination NSW.

FCTG Chief Executive Officer Supply Greg Parker described Hitchen’s appointment as a “major win” in cementing the company’s commitment to bringing a dedicated B2B cruise wholesaler to the Aussie market.

“Caroline has the specialist experience in cruise wholesaling we need to ensure we can deliver on our vision of an unrivalled partnering model and new age B2B wholesale model,” he said.

CruiseHQ’s leadership team is now in place, following the earlier announcements of Head of Operations Tina Giannopoulos, Head of Product Carina Mullen, Marketing Manager Caitlyn Paris, and Business Development Manager Viktoryia Shliazhko (CW 05 Sep).

“We are committed to making sure CruiseHQ is best-to-market and promotes real value and I believe Caroline is the right leader to help us achieve this,” Parker added.

“Under the new age CruiseHQ B2B model, agents will be able to access exclusive pricing and products across airfares, charters, groups, nets, and commits that can be bundled together with hotels, transfers and tours for end-to-end cruise holiday itineraries.” MS