Magic Rooms managing director Brian Young is to leave the bed bank at the end of February to join G Adventures as managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Young helped set up Magic Rooms with former Thomas Cook chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, following the collapse of On Holiday Group, where Young was sales director.
He said that he only ever planned to work for Magic for nine months, while establishing the company and helping secure jobs for affected OHG staff. After 11 years working in the accommodation-only arena, he said he was keen to move to another sector.
Young will assume a new role at G Adventures that has been created with a view to significantly expanding the operator’s business in the UK, he said.
One of Young’s first tasks will be securing new distribution through the trade. “There is a huge opportunity, from a trade perspective,” he said. “I am keen to find new routes to market. G Adventures is sold by good independents and agents that specialise outside of the normal beach market, but we can stretch the distribution further with new agents.
“The potential for agents is massive. People want to see more of the world. People want to get up close and personal with different cultures and they want to do it in a sustainable and responsible way.”
Magic Rooms, meanwhile, was trading a “bit ahead of expected” after seven months in business, according to Fontenla-Novoa. He said he was close to announcing a replacement for Young to take over the day-to-day running of the company.
G Adventures vice-president global sales, John Warner, said: “Brian’s appointment is a strategic move for us.
“The most important thing about our company is the people and talent in the business. We like to think we’re a team of committed individuals and we wanted somebody that identified with the values and saw the opportunity of what we’re trying to build in the UK and parts of Europe.
“Brian fitted all that to a tee – his experience, his know-how, his enthusiasm, his connections but most of all he is all about the team and inspiring them to get the best from them. Not about the person at the head of it with the big job title.”
Warner said G Adventures was currently “only scratching the surface of the UK market” but said “adventure travel is rapidly moving from the outskirts to the mainstream as people want experience-based holidays.
“The word adventure no longer means jumping out of a plane, but having authentic and genuine experiences and we are seeing people gravitate towards us,” he added.
He said he hoped Young would build on established relationships with good agents but also engage new agents to sell G Adventure tours.
Currently, over 80% of G Adventures business is sold via agents and Warner expects that proportion to be the same even as the business grows.
Warner said the UK was Young’s number one priority, but that he was also tasked with growing other markets.
“We are quite established in central Europe for example but not in Spain and France, so that might be an opportunity,” he said.
Magic Rooms owner Manny Fontenla-Novoa said: “Business is really good.
“We have kept to our principals of paying two weeks after we collect which has helped us establish a really good reputation overseas with hoteliers and we’ve worked hard on our relationships with our trade partners and are extremely grateful for the support they’ve given us.
“Our volumes in the peaks were up to 60% of the On Holiday Group’s which is fantastic for a baby company. This year will be about consolidating our position and then about profitable growth.”