South African Tourism has appointed Kristy Angellotti as the Head of Trade Relations North America.
In her new role, Angellotti will connect with the SAT North America team to develop current relationships with North American travel trade partners, at the same time working with the US and Canada’s new distribution channels to sell South Africa as a leisure and business events destination.
From 2013-2017, Angellotti got her start in the African travel trade as SAT’s Manager: Trade Relations (West Coast). Before that, for 10 years, she worked in travel trade media and consumer media.
New role for ANEW’s Ops Director
ANEW Hotels & Resorts has announced that Operations Director, Kevin Burley, will take on the role of Director of People, Culture, and Organisational Development.
Burley said: “With us going from one acquisition to another, and the COVID-19 pandemic, no one would have dreamt we would grow so rapidly. As directors, we had to take time to sit back, think and rethink. We engaged with an external consultant who embarked on market research, talking to people about what the ANEW brand means.
“Part of that process was assessing who we are in the market and who our competitors are. We spent a lot of time developing a winning proposition – what are we passionate about and what is going to give us that advantage against our competitors.”
He pointed out that the feedback from the research had led to the group analysing which foundational pillars were needed to make sure that ANEW’s winning proposition happened.
Burley spent 20 years at InterContinental Hotels in the north of England as Regional Manager. He left to train as a business coach
“I did coaching for 15 years, primarily in the UK and that’s what brought me to South Africa. I always said if I were to step back into the hospitality industry full-time, it would have to be at an iconic hotel or cool company. I believe I made the right decision in joining a cool company (ANEW).”
He added: “I looked at my Operations role and People role. I sought counsel from my general managers and external mentors, and what I’ve come up with is that I’m going to specialise in the people space. This led to the birth of my new role as Director of People, Culture, and Organisational Development.”
Burley explained that in this position, he could further implement his business coach experience.
“The people side of our business has changed dramatically. The industry has lost a huge amount of people who saw hospitality as unstable due to COVID, so they’ve gone into retail and factories, while some faced retrenchment. If we don’t nurture our people, they will leave. As a result, I’m happy to announce that I’ve already started expanding our Human Resources team, with announcements imminent.”
ANEW is currently interviewing for a Group Operations Manager.
