Andy Washington joins Culture Trip
Dnata Travel’s former B2C Europe CEO Andy Washington has joined online travel magazine Culture Trip to launch the global startup’s new online travel booking division.
Washington left Dnata in May after two years leading its consumer brands including Travel Republic, Travelbag and Netflights, citing ‘personal reasons’.
He was previously MD Expedia for Northern Europe, ebookers EMEA and he has worked for Cosmos, lastminute.com, Thomas Cook and Emirates Group.
He starts his new role at Culture Trip as SVP Travel today and will report directly to COO Jeff Szczepanski, formerly COO of Stack Overflow and co-founder of Allworx.
Culture Trip announced $80 million of fresh funding in April. Its new travel booking division plans to connect hand-picked boutique and lifestyle hotels, independent hotels, hostels and experience providers with its mainly millennial readers.
It claims to have 20 million unique visitors to its website every month, it also has a social media following exceeding six million. Its video content has generated nearly two billion views and its app has been downloaded more than one million time, it said.
Washington said: "Culture Trip’s inspirational content has location at its heart, the local knowledge of its global network of contributors’ means it can uniquely get under the skin of a place and tap into the zeitgeist for truly authentic experiences.
The scale and engagement of its existing audience means it offers an enviable connection to hard-to-reach discerning millennials and I believe it will be a game changer in the travel industry for hotels and tourist boards looking to acquire and motivate new visitors."
Founder and CEO Kris Naudts said: "We’re building a leading, global consumer brand that will disrupt the travel industry through creative content and technology. As we continue to grow, I’m looking to bring together leading minds from tech and travel to pioneer and innovate and Andy’s extensive travel experience and insight will be a key driver in that."
Szczepanski added: "We’re bringing in key talent with the best experience in the world to help us fuel innovation, drive further audience growth and roll out future monetisation strategies. That investment in quality service and people means we are looking to our next stage of hyper growth, ~growing both our audiences and industry partners."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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