New appointment for Emirates

Emirates Group is appointing of Marc Bennett as Divisional Senior Vice President of its Destination & Leisure Management (D&LM) Division. Marc’s background includes over 18 years of leisure and hospitality industry experience in tour operating, pricing, yield management and distribution, working across Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA). He will be responsible for overseeing all business units within the division which include Emirates Holidays, the airline’s tour operating arm; Arabian Adventures - the Middle East’s leading Destination Management Company (DMC); Congress Solutions International (CSI) - a full-fledged professional congress solutions provider; and Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa - the international award-winning, carbon-neutral resort located in Australia’s Blue Mountains. “Marc is very well placed to head the Destination & Leisure Management (D&LM) portfolio. His diverse management experience in the hospitality and leisure industries across the Europe, Middle East and Asia – will undoubtedly serve him in good stead in this new role. There is tremendous opportunity to build on the success of the D&LM brands and I am confident that Marc will ably steer the business to further growth,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates’ Executive Vice President, Passenger Sales Worldwide. Marc joins Emirates from TUI Travel PLC’s European sport businesses where he held the position of Managing Director for the EMEA region for two years, managing a large team across three continents and encompassing three international tour operating brands, a hospitality business as well as a client services and DMC provider. Prior to TUI, Marc was with Thomas Cook where he was Managing Director of Cruise Thomas Cook, the UK’s largest cruise retailer. He also held the position of Director of Trade Relations at Thomas Cook focussing on internal and external distribution channels.  Marc previously spent five years with the Disney Corporation working as Sales Director in the French market before returning to the UK to run Disney’s new tour operation. Originally from the UK, Marc began his career in investment banking before pursuing a sporting career for a number of years. He has also recently completed an MBA at Kingston University, where he specialised in Business Culture.