Wendy Wu Tours has promoted Glen Mintrim from UK managing director to chief executive.
Mintrim’s promotion is part of the Asia specialist tour operator’s global restructure, effective from December 1.
Former STA Travel boss Mintrim joined Wendy Wu Tours in July 2019. As chief executive, he will lead the operator’s global senior team, driving the company’s five-year growth and development plans with a focus on increasing support and resources for the trade.
As part of the restructure, global sales director John Warr will take full responsibility for the sales teams and business development managers in Australia and New Zealand.
The company said it had grown the number of agents signed up to its agent portal, and its consumer database this year, despite the challenges faced by Covid.
Founder Wendy Wu said: “Glen is an exceptional leader. His track record in transforming and expanding our business across multiple new platforms, as well as delivering a wide-ranging reset of the core UK business, has been extraordinary.
“Glen’s depth of international experience, his collaborative leadership style, as well as his proven results in building a high-performance team at Wendy Wu Tours, will be an asset in the new CEO position.”
Mintrim said: “I am honoured and excited to take up this role with such an amazing and forward-looking business. We have a great culture and a winning strategy that has enabled us to weather the challenges thrown at us this year whilst continuing to grow. Building further on our success is a challenge I accept with confidence and determination, not only our business but for the travel industry as a whole.
“We are passionate about supporting the trade. Our travel agent partners have been an incredible support to us during this challenging time and hence it’s now time for us to do everything we can to work with the trade to bring customers back to them, whether online or back into stores.”
Mintrim said Wendy Wu Tours would increase its range of agent webinars over the next six months “in response to demand” and offer more special offers for agents to sell to their customers.
“We know it’s been tough for agents so we are ploughing more investment into the trade to bring our agents with us,” he said.