Advantage Travel Partnership promotes John Sullivan

The Advantage Travel Partnership has promoted head of commercial John Sullivan to the role of commercial director, overseeing the strategic business-to-business commercial activities across all of the partnership’s third-party supply chain.

Sullivan, who has been with the organisation for 15 years, will continue to report to chief commercial officer Kelly Cookes while working closely with other divisional leads.

Advantage chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said said: “John is a highly valued member of the team and in his new role he will play a pivotal role in driving forward our ambitious commercial agenda. This appointment reinforces our focus on leveraging our commercial scale, the importance of our business-to-business relationships, and further demonstrates our intention to strengthen our commercial proposition through increased investment in our people.”

The combined commercial function of Advantage currently delivers a sales turnover across its membership of £15.7bn annually.

Sullivan said he was looking forward to a “fresh challenge” and further developing third-party partnerships while enhancing the “member value proposition”.

He added: “Over the last 12 months we have made great progress in strategically driving our product portfolio across a number of sectors, including cruise and touring and adventure.

“This strategic drive incorporates securing greater commercial benefits, marketing and dedicated events for our members.”

Cookes said: “This is a well-deserved promotion for John and reflects his strong performance over the years and his significant contribution and influence in building our third-party partnerships.

“Our commercial proposition sits at the very heart of the business and our ambition is to further optimise and leverage our global buying power across the group to drive increased commercial benefits to members operating in both leisure and business travel.”

Other recent appointments at Advantage include Pelin Dede as head of accommodation, while recruitment is ongoing for the position of head of supplier relations covering air, ground and technology.