Flight Centre Travel Group appointed Darren Lloyd as Brand Leader for its newly relaunched Cruiseabout brand, adding to his 24-year FCTG leadership career across leisure brands, including Escape Travel, Student Flights and BYOJet.
FCTG Global Leisure CEO James Kavanagh called the appointment and the return of Mr Lloyd a major win to ensure smooth sailing for its newest leisure brand, Cruiseabout.
“With Darren steering this ship, we can give Australian cruise customers the modernised and refreshed retail cruise brand they have been missing for years,” Mr Kavanagh said.
“Our model – with a national footprint, Australia-based call centre and online booking functionality all serviced by specialist cruise experts – is the only one of its kind in Australia.
“We’re excited to watch Darren take the helm as an incredibly experienced leader.”
After joining FCTG in 1999, Mr Lloyd held multiple leadership roles within the Group. His most recent role was COO and a Board Member at Spell Designs before taking up the Cruiseabout role.
CruiseHQ appointments & recruitment
Another four key appointments joined CruiseHQ, FCTG’s dedicated B2B cruise wholesaler for Australia and New Zealand.
Tina Giannapolous (Head of Operations), Carina Mullen (Head of Product), Caitlyn Paris (Marketing Manager) and Viktoryia Schliazhko (Business Development Manager) collectively bring 20-plus years’ in’ cruise wholesaling experience.
FCTG Supply CEO Greg Parker said the team’s specialist experience will deliver its promised B2B wholesale model.
“We are committed to making sure CruiseHQ is best-to-market and promotes real value. I believe we have the right leaders in place to help us achieve this,” Mr Parker said.
Cruiseabout and CruiseHQ will recruit roles across the Gold Coast-based call centre, wholesale support and its first retail shop due to open in Sydney in early 2024.
Find out more at cruiseaboutdeals.com
