An all female leadership line-up has been unveiled by the Irish Travel Agents Association with the election of Angela Walsh as president.
The chief executive and founder of Cork-based Frosch Ireland is one of Ireland’s leading business travel experts and a long-time activist within the ITAA.
Walsh has been a board member since 2013, has run a tea el management company for 25 years, and is only the second woman to hold the office of ITAA president since 1970.
She joins chief executive Clare Dunne, who was president from 2012 to 2014, and newly elected treasurer Emma McHugh of Atlantic Travel, Letterkenny, Donegal, an ITAA boards member since 2020.
Walsh succeeds Paul Hackett, co-founder of Click&Go, who was president for the past two years.
Other appointments to the ITAA board alongside Hackett were Sara Zimmerman, Travel Department; Martin Skelly, Navan Travel; Alan Lynch, Travel Escapes; Jeff Collins, Best4Travel; Tom Randles, Barters Travelnet and Peter Brazil, Limerick Travel.
Walsh, speaking at the association’s annual meeting in Dublin, said: “I am honoured to be elected as the president of the ITAA. In taking up this position I believe that I can continue to grow the ITAA membership and continue developing the supports to our existing members enhancing the credibility and reputation of the Irish travel industry.
“The continued success of our industry has been down to travel agents’ collective ability to evolve and meet the changing market place, be it changes in technology, empowering our people or working within a sustainable environment.
“The coming year offers big opportunities for the travel trade to evolve further.”
Dunne said: “I wish Angela well as she begins her term as ITAA President. Her experience and her work on the board over the last ten years shows her love of the industry and commitment to the association. I am looking forward to working with her and the new board over the coming year.”
She added: “I would like to thank Paul Hackett, our outgoing president, for his dedication to the ITAA during his term.
“Paul served during an unpredictable time of travel bans, strikes and weather warnings but continued to voice travel agents concerns to the public and government.
“His two year term, was hugely successful in supporting the Irish travel industry and his passion for the association is appreciated by all.”