Rush Insurance has promoted its sales and partnerships manager Louise Bates to the role of sales and relationships director.
She said: “I recently announced my promotion on Facebook and was totally overwhelmed by not only the number of comments (402) but the lovely words and sentiments that people shared.
“The travel industry is such a loving and caring family, it was like getting the biggest hug.”
Bates began her travel career 32 years ago when she joined Pickford’s Travel as an apprentice at the age of 16.
She became a senior sales consultant then moved to an assistant manager post with at Co-op Travelcare, then on to manage a First Choice Travelchoice Express Store for a couple of years.
“I then did 12 years at Tameside Travel, a Hays Independence Group branch within a college, where my staff were travel and tourism students, so my role was to manage the branch and train our future agents – many of whom are in the industry now,” she said.
“I then began my career as a supplier and joined the team at Holiday Extras covering the North for just short of three years.
“I was then approached by Jeff Rush, owner of Rush Insurance with an opportunity.
“I took a leap of faith and followed my gut and became sales and partnerships manager covering the whole of the UK, with my main account being Hays Travel.
“Nearly eight years on, here I am as director.”
She added: “I am now massively passionate about travel insurance, and I try and make a serious and heavily regulated product interesting and fun.
“Everyone needs to understand the importance of travel insurance and the possible consequences of not having a policy in place – I love sharing some horror stories in my training.”