Teletext Holidays has signalled plans to “aggressively grow” its online and mobile presence with new appointments to its board of directors.
The new board structure comes as the company revealed a record 4.5 million online holiday searches in the first quarter of 2012, up 5% year on year.
The rise in online holiday searches gives a strong indication that people are still intending to book an overseas break this year despite a squeeze on household incomes, according to the company.
More than half (52%) of all holiday searches were for all-inclusive trips, up by 10% over last year.
The highest volume of searches were the June half term, which coincides with an extended bank holiday break alongside the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Technology entrepreneur Dr Daniel Lee, currently chief executive and co-founder of Artirix, a company which specialises in next generation search technology, has joined the board. He previously founded and managed free-to-list property search engine Globrix.com which reached 1.5 million users within 18 months of launch.
Lee joins the Teletext Holidays board as part of a five-strong team geared towards accelerating the business’s growth on the online leisure travel space and through mobile channels.
The other new board member is Jane Hendy who has become finance director.
They join existing board members, chairman Chris Letcher, managing director Victoria Sanders and marketing director Mark Bloxham. All five are also now shareholders in the business.
Sanders said: “This is a very dynamic and entrepreneurial team with an impressive blend of knowledge spanning search technology, online marketing and commercial knowledge of the travel industry.
“We have deliberately kept the senior team to a core group of talented individuals with the right skills to drive the business to the next level.”
She added: “The Teletext Holidays brand is synonymous with great value deals and has a very loyal online fan base built up over many years but it is growing rapidly attracting new customers daily.
“The brand has long been connected with the television text service but we are not leaving our television roots behind.
“We continue to lead the travel industry with internet connected television technology with brands such as Samsung.
“But it is online and mobile where we see the biggest opportunity and both these areas will be the big drivers for us going forward.
“In a value-driven market where customers are looking for the very best deal on their holiday the Teletext Holidays brand is coming into its own.”