Manuel Mascarenhas has been appointed as the new managing director of Wendy Wu Tours.
The former Kuoni sales director has also worked for British Airways, Thomson and Thomas Cook Signature in a travel career spanning more than 30 years.
Mascarenhas said: “Wendy Wu Tours has very ambitious growth plans over the next couple of years. The product is excellent and customers love it.
“Our core strength is China, and always will be, but we will continue to add new destinations, Indochina being the most recent.
“What is exciting is the prospect of developing the special interest groups market, and being creative with our product offering.”
Mascarenhas replaces Laurence Hicks who left the operator at the end of last month after being unable to agree terms for a new contract.
One of Mascarenhas’ first moves was to seek to reassure travel agents that tours of China were still safe, despite the continued uprising in the Xinjiang region, which has left 156 people dead in the city of Urumqi.
He said the tour operator currently has no tours going on in the affected area, which is more than 1,000 miles away from the key tourism areas.
Mascarenhas added: “It’s important for agents to understand the geography of the country, and just how far away this uprising is from anywhere on the usual tourist trail.
“We hope that the Chinese authorities will resolve this problem as quickly as possible and we will of course be monitoring the Foreign Office (FCO) advice on a daily basis.”
The FCO updated its advice for British travellers in the region following the continued unrest.