Zena Calderbank is to leave tour operator Hoseasons after nearly eight years.
Calderbank is head of sales for Wyndham Vacation Rentals’ brands Hoseasons, Cottages4you, Villas4you and Canvas Holidays, and is well known in the trade.
She has decided to leave for personal reasons to spend more time with her new extended family, plan a wedding to her partner next spring as well as renovate her home. She plans to take around a year off before returning to the industry next year.
She said: “This is something I have thought about for a couple of months and at this moment it’s exactly what I want to do. But I do want to come back to the industry sometime in 2015. I am sad to be leaving but happy too.”
Calderbank plans to leave officially at the end of July, and will be visiting all the company’s main accounts over the next couple of months, before going on gardening leave.
Calderbank is also chairman of the Truly Independent Professional Travel Organisation and aims to complete her term there, which finishes in September. Prior to joining Hoseasons, she worked at Cresta Holidays for 17 years.
Wyndham Vacation Rentals, which bought Hoseasons and the Holiday Cottages Group in 2010, now plans to recruit a new head of sales. Its other UK brands include cottages4you, Canvas Holidays, English Country Cottages and James Villa Holidays.
Hoseasons managing director Simon Altham said: “We would like to thank Zena for her hard work and commitment to Hoseasons over the last seven years and wish her the best of luck for the future. As a business we remain firmly committed to the trade and have begun the search for a replacement to spearhead the team and to grow our longstanding relationships within the industry.”