A burgeoning Highland hospitality group has recruited a new Marketing chief and its first internal Revenue Manager as it targets further acquisitions and growth in Scotland.
Turas Hotels, which recently purchased Aviemore’s landmark Cairngorm Hotel, has appointed Jennifer Macdonald-Nethercott to propel its brand vision whilst Johan Van Heerden has been appointed to the Revenue role.
The appointments are part of a complete leadership refinement, which will also see the creation of an overarching Director of Sustainability position to embed green action across the whole group.
Turas Hotels, formerly the J and R Group, boasts properties the length of the A9 tourist spine, offering nearly 80 000 room nights annually, as well as operating award-winning restaurants and a whisky distillery and brewery.
Its portfolio comprises the Cairngorm Hotel and Boat Country Inn in the Cairngorms National Park, the Seaforth in Ullapool, the Glen Mhor Hotel in Inverness and McKays in Pitlochry as well as Uile-bheist Distillery and Brewery in the highland capital.
Newly appointed Head of Marketing, Jennifer Macdonald-Nethercott, who has 25 years of experience in the Highlands, spearheaded the recent rebrand to Turas, which means ‘journey’ in Gaelic.
She will be responsible for rolling out the group’s ‘Stay-Discover-Dine’ vision and customer Rewards scheme while Johan Van Heerden, currently at the Boat Country Inn, steps into the group’s first ever in-house Revenue and Operations role.
“This is a really exciting position,” said Jennifer. “It’s a privilege to create and develop the look and feel of the brand and to impart the vision to our teams and guests.
“A stay with Turas is much more than just a bedroom. Our properties are offering guests quality food and drink, music and entertainment and experiences such as distillery tours.”
Victoria Erasmus, who oversaw the Glen Mhor Hotel’s recognition as one of the world’s greenest at the inaugural World Sustainable Travel and Hospitality Awards in Belize last year, becomes overall group Director of Sustainability.
Co-chair of Visit Inverness Loch Ness, she will now mainstream sustainability programmes across all group properties, developing Climate Plans and diversity and inclusion policies.
Delia Keating takes up a key role as group Head of Recruitment, with Fiona Connor leading on HR.
Charlotte Sukhraj, who previously worked with Radisson and Marriot, and Peter Thornton, ex Historic Environment Scotland, are group Sales Managers.
An Accounts Team will also work across the whole group.
“Through the Turas model, we are able to use our talented people across the whole group while cross-promoting our individual properties under the Turas umbrella.
“We knew marketing would have a major role to play moving forward. Jennifer understands the vision and was a natural choice for us,” said Turas Hotels Director, Richard Drummond.
The appointments, it is hoped, will help the growing business cement its place within the hospitality sector whilst looking to expand in future.
“Having the advantage of scale is definitely the way we see hospitality going,” said fellow Turas Hotels Director, Jon Erasmus.
“Single hotels are having to do everything from hiring and purchasing to HR and dealing with complex employment law and red tape.
“Streamlining critical functions across the whole business will free up our General Managers to focus on what’s important: customer experience and quality.”
