Hotelbeds Group today confirmed 350 new senior staff following the takeovers of Tourico Holidays and GTA.
The second and third tier management roles have been created in a revised staffing structure to manage the company’s growth following the acquisitions of the two bedbanks with a strong presence in North America and Asia-Pacific respectively.
But an unspecified number of staff have not been taken on as part of a revised management structure.
Around 350 positions drawn from all three businesses, at both senior management and management levels, have now been finalised.
The appointments are designed to respond to the “new reality” of group’s expanded operations following the integration of Tourico Holidays and GTA.
Almost all roles have now been appointed, with a handful remaining to be completed in the coming weeks.
Palma-based Hotelbeds now boasts a portfolio of more than 170,000 hotels selling to over 60,000 travel intermediaries globally via the group´s proprietary B2B technology platform.
Hotelbeds executive chairman Joan Vilà said: “Firstly, I would like to congratulate all of those who have been appointed recently.
“We recognise the contribution that each and every one of them will make to ensuring that Hotelbeds Group remains the most innovative and leading bedbank globally.
“We additionally would like thank the employees for their patience whilst we have been reviewing the optimum structure for our organisation.
“Given that GTA only became part of our group in October we are confident that we have allowed for an appropriate timeframe to ensure the most appropriate decisions were taken.
“In many cases the increased size of our newly combined business has meant that we have been able to appoint people into exciting and fulfilling new roles within our organisation.
“However, sadly in some cases there have not been appropriate roles for every single person due to the strong talent pool available.
“The appointments followed a rigorous and robust review process, supported by external experts.
“Factors such as geography or new skillset requirements played significant part in the difficult decisions taken.
“We recognise the contributions of these people and wish them all the best for the future.
“Nonetheless, in the context of our global business – which now employs thousands of staff around the world – the impact has thankfully been relatively small, and this is down to our continued growth and ambitious plans for the future.
“While the shape of our operations will continue to respond to the needs of the market, over the medium term we expect our headcount to remain roughly stable, and in fact over the longer term even grow. In some areas, such as sourcing, we are currently on an active recruitment drive.”
Vilà added: “We are confident that we have established a very strong management team, one that is more diverse geographically as well as in terms of culture, experience and skills.
“Having such fighting-fit leaders at the forefront of our business across the globe will be an important factor that will enable us to lead our segment in this competitive space.
“The bedbank sector is evolving quickly and facing continual challenges from new entrants and technological innovation.
“It’s only by providing our hotel partners and travel intermediary clients with the most cost-effective and competitive solutions that we will continue to remain a market leader and grow further.”
More: Hotelbeds completes GTA takeover