Bodini Elected New Chairman of ETOA

ETOA, the European tourism association has elected Mario Bodini as its new Chairman following Patrick Richards stepping down, after a 7 year term. Mario is the Executive Vice President of JacTravel, the B2B wholesaler which was recently sold by Bowmark Capital to Vitruvian Partners for ~ £80m.

During Patrick’s stewardship, ETOA’s membership has doubled; its secretariat team has strengthened substantially and major new tourism workshop events have been launched and become well established. At its AGM last night, ETOA reported record membership (250 tour operator members and 500 associate members), record turnover (£1.44m) and record reserves (£389,000).

Mario said: “I am delighted to take over from Patrick who has done a superb job over the last 7 years and I very much look forward to working with ETOA’s CEO Tom Jenkins and his excellent team.” He continued: “My aim is to continue the focus, ensuring that ETOA works on behalf of its members to take away barriers affecting the competitiveness and the ease of doing business in Europe. I am committed to doing my bit to ensure brand Europe does not become complacent especially in the eyes of the newer, developing source markets and I am very keen to ensure ETOA wholeheartedly embraces electronic distribution as an increasingly important factor in travel to Europe.” 

Patrick Richards, who is COO Purchasing, Cox & Kings, replied: “I have greatly enjoyed my time working at the Association and I am very pleased to be passing on ETOA in the shape it is in. Mario will bring huge kudos and experience to the role and I wish him every success.” 
At the AGM, ETOA’s CEO, Tom Jenkins said that the Association’s new Commercial Director, Martine Ainsworth-Wells had made an immediate impact and she was already bringing improved organisation to the secretariat. Her presence will enable him to relinquish some management duties and enable him to give much greater focus to policy initiatives, lobbying government forcefully on topics like visas, tax and regulation, which have the potential to make a very significant difference to the commercial performance of members. ETOA’s Treasurer, Sean Taggart, described the financial performance as strong, particularly in the light of the decline in value of the euro, and one the Executive could be proud of.