Mike Southcombe appointed as general manager of new ptm management business
House of Travel has appointed Mike Southcombe as general manager of its new personal travel management business.
He will join the Auckland-based Holdings team on 18 September 2017.
Southcombe will set up and implement the new personal travel manager channel within the House of Travel Group. Mark O’Donnell, House of Travel’s chief executive officer, says the company feels Southcombe is the perfect fit for House of Travel and brings with him great experience and strong networks within the personal travel management area, to help with the development of the channel.
‘We have great experience in developing a compelling offer for this part of the industry as our business in Australia is now in excess of 500 PTMs and is continuing to attract new PTMs to its ranks. We will apply these learnings to the NZ market to provide a new model for this part of the industry.’
Southcombe’s involvement within the industry has been extensive with 12 years spent as one of the founding partners of Travel Managers Group New Zealand before selling his shares in early 2014. He then moved to the Far North with his family for 12 months before rejoining the industry.
Southcombe has been a travel and tourism sector advisor with Service IQ since 2015. Although a niche part of the overall industry, the past 10 years has seen personal travel management nearly double in size with approximately 600 PTMs in New Zealand.