Riviera Travel has announced that Noeleen Pritchard has joined the operator in a newly created role of operations director.

Pritchard will be part of Riviera’s executive team and will oversee operations, the contact centre – including sales and customer experience – and tour management.

Prior to joining Riviera, Pritchard was operations director at Great Rail Journeys. She was also formerly a manager in Capita’s travel division for 11 years.

As part of Riviera’s bolstered senior management team, Simon Michaelides’ role has evolved from chief customer officer to chief customer and strategy officer.

He now has overall responsibility for business strategy, customer insight and analytics, innovation, brand, marketing, ecommerce and digital.

In addition, Robin Shaw, who joined Riviera as chief operating officer, is now chief commercial officer, with responsibility for driving Riviera’s commercial capability and agenda.

Riviera Travel seeing ‘strong demand’

Riviera Travel CEO Phil Hullah said: “Noeleen brings extensive travel operations knowledge to Riviera and we are thrilled she has joined us.

“We are seeing strong customer demand for our river cruises and escorted tours, so now is the ideal time to really focus on our long-term growth.

“Noeleen’s addition to the executive team, together with the wider changes, will ensure that we are best placed to understand and respond to changing customer needs.”

Pritchard added: “It’s an exciting time to be joining the Riviera team. I look forward in helping the company to achieve further growth, while continuing to deliver the wonderful experiences of our Riviera holidays.”

Riviera Travel has also rejoined CLIA to “enhance brand awareness across the UK & Ireland travel trade, including among CLIA’s wider community of cruise lines, travel agents and executive partners”.