Blue Bay Travel has promoted Tasha Smith to the position of business development manager, to further strengthen the long-haul specialist’s relationships with its trade partners.
Smith will take up the newly created role on October 4, moving from her previous position as trade support team leader.
She will continue to manage Blue Bay’s in-house trade support team and will take on the task of finding new ways to maximise sales through travel agents, which is a priority growth area for the business.
Alistair Rowland, chief executive for Blue Bay Travel, said: “Selling our Blue Bay Travel product through the trade, via an exclusive partnership with The Midcounties Co-operative’s Your Co-op Travel, Co-op Travel Consortium and The Personal Travel Agents brands, is an important area for us and Tasha will be pivotal in growing that part of the business.
“The new role will ensure we maximise all opportunities in this area and give the agents that we work with the tools they need to sell our amazing deals to their customers.”
Smith will also work closely with Abbie Heaton, sales manager for The Personal Travel Consultants, to drive recruitment for the expanding division of self-employed homeworkers.
“We’re excited to have Tasha waving the Blue Bay flag far and wide and are confident that this well-deserved promotion will bring even more engagement from agents in the future,” added Rowland.
Smith re-joined Blue Bay Travel in March 2021, having held a sales advisor role at the company between 2014 and 2016.
She has worked in travel for more than a decade, starting at the age of 17 at Co-operative Travel as a sales advisor.
Smith reached manager level at Polka Dot Travel and then became a business development manager for Palladium Hotel Group, before re-joining Blue Bay Travel.
She said: “I love working with trade partners and am really looking forward to nurturing even stronger relationships with them.
“We have a fantastic product to offer our third-party agents and my aim is to make sure everyone knows who we are, what we offer and why they should be using us.”
A member of The Midcounties Co-operative’s Co-op Travel consortium, Blue Bay Travel a travel agency and tour operator selling holidays to the Caribbean, Mexico, Indian Ocean and the Far East.