Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group Strengthens Trade Focus with Senior Appointments

Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group (AKTG) is strengthening its trade sales leadership in the Americas with expanded roles for Matias Lira and Shawn Johnson. Both will be reporting to newly appointed chief sales officer of trade, Debra Fox.

As chief sales officer of trade, Fox assumes global responsibility for all trade sales across AKTG’s flagship brands, including Abercrombie & Kent, Crystal, A&K Sanctuary, Cox & Kings, and Ecoventura. She reports directly to CEO Cristina Levis.

Lira will continue in his role as senior vice president of trade sales America, but will expand his role too lead field sales for all AKTG brands, as well as business development and MICE sales.

In Johnson’s expanded role, he will build on his previous leadership as senior vice president of national accounts, trade loyalty & events, Americas, with additional responsibility for trade loyalty and events across all brands. The role also enables a more focused development of a new trade loyalty program and enhancements to AKTG’s trade events.

He will work closely with Lira to ensure a seamless transition for the A&K field and sales teams.

“This structure allows us to deliver even more focused support to our trade partners than ever before,” Fox said. “We are elevating our already best-in-class trade sales organization through a strengthened structure and the joint leadership of Matias and Shawn, whose deep advisor expertise and clear focus on unlocking new sales opportunities will drive even greater value for our partners.”

According to AKTG, the appointments reflect its commitment to “delivering enhanced support to travel advisors across the Americas, while maintaining the distinct brand expertise and dedicated focus that partners value.”

The reinforced sales structure supports “unprecedented” expansion across AKTG’s portfolio, which has included the addition of new DMCs in key markets, as well as product launches such as A&K Sanctuary properties like Gorilla Forest Lodge in Uganda, Pure Amazon riverboat in Peru, and the Baines’ Lodge in Botswana.

TMR recently caught up with Lira to talk about what’s new at Crystal.