The new trade distribution director at Titan Travel, Shane Lewis-Riley, has pledged to “accelerate” the escorted touring brand and work with more travel agents than ever before.
He will also bring lessons learned from his previous roles at Virgin Voyages, where he worked for six years, and 20-plus years overall in travel.
Lewis-Riley said: “Most of my career has been in cruise. I was in cruise right in the very beginning, almost, when people thought cruise was for a certain demographic…cruise has gone on a journey to what we see today, with cruise as a really mainstream holiday option.
“Touring has that opportunity, as well, to open up to a wider audience.
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“My plan is to be able to put touring in front of people who may never have considered it and also work with more agent partners than ever before.
“The trade makes up such a big proportion of Titan’s business, over 40% comes from the trade.”
He was speaking to Travel Weekly on a webcast during the annual conference of the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) – which coincided with his first week at Titan.
Lewis-Riley had intended to take “a few months off” after leaving Virgin Voyages last month but was attracted to Titan because “there is so much opportunity”.
“This opportunity was so great – to be able to take a market-leading brand and accelerate that even further,” he said.
“There are lots of learnings I can take from launching Virgin Voyages and the opportunity of developing the relationship with the trade.
“One thing that I will bring from my Virgin background was the trade ultimately built the strategy.
“My big focus now, over the next few weeks, is talking to as many trade partners as we can to find out what the barriers are, what we do really well, what could we do better.”
He said there are “some really exciting things to come” including new regional departures in underserved areas of the UK.
At Virgin Voyages, he helped to establish the brand from its inception, developing a reputation as a “disruptor” – but now at Titan Travel, he is working with an established brand.
“[Titan] has got the heritage, a huge customer database and really strong trade support – but there are definitely things that can be done,” he told the webcast.
“We want to work with more trade partners. We want to be the brand leading from the front.
“Titan already is in a fortunate position of being a market leader. I want to accelerate that and put further distance between ourselves and our competitors.
“The main focus over the next few weeks is listening a lot, figuring out where the biggest priorities are…and how to deliver the next three-year plan.
“I’m a disrupter, I think it’s a good thing, so I intend to put some energy into the touring sector, add a bit of spark to it and do what I can to raise the bar of touring – it is prime for acceleration, prime for some level of disruption.
“Virgin Voyages was brilliant to be able to elevate the entire cruise industry. My job will be to do the same for Titan and to be able to open Titan Travel to people who’ve never really considered it.”
Commenting on what he’d learned about the touring sector during the Atas conference in Leeds, he said there are opportunities to dispel myths about touring and to use technology to make it easier and quicker to book touring holidays.
He also said he needs to go on his first Titan Travel tour, having not taken a tour since he worked for youth brand STA Travel.
“I need to go. I need the VIP service. I need to be picked up at the door,” he said, highlighting one of the key aspects of a Titan Travel holiday.
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