Car rental group director gets ITT Odyssey Award
Avis Budget Group’s director of sales and partnerships international, Julia Kemp, has been honoured as the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Institute of Travel & Tourism (ITT) Odyssey Award.
The award is given to an individual in recognition of their significant contribution to the travel and tourism industry.
Kemp joined Avis as head of leisure, with a brief to develop the travel and leisure sector and now manages teams in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
"Julia has been one of the travel industry’s leading figures for over two decades.~It is in recognition of her significant contribution both to the industry as a whole, and to ITT, that the board of ITT were unanimous that Julia Kemp should be the recipient of the 2019 Odyssey Award," said ITT chair Steven Freudman at the 63rd ITT President’s Dinner, held at the Savoy Hotel in London last week.
Kemp added: "I’m humbled but delighted and very proud to be awarded the ITT Odyssey Award. I feel privileged to work in the travel industry with such amazing and inspiring colleagues, and I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had at Avis Budget Group, which have allowed me to fully develop my career."
Previous winners of the award include Sir Richard Branson, Sir Freddie Laker, Carolyn McCall and Kuljinda Bahia.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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