Head of Destination

Hybrid working – 3 days working from home and 2 days based London

Basic Salary £68,000 plus 38 days holidays, excellent pension, discounts and benefits

My client supports high-growth businesses to scale to develop London as a destination to attract visitors and events. This includes social enterprise funded by grants, partners, and our portfolio of commercial ventures.

As the Head of Destination, you will experience of working in travel or tourism industry with a focus on destination management or placemaking, with the ability to build effective partnerships with key London stakeholders.

As the Head of Destination, you will have a “firsthand” approach to lead the delivery of the visitor experience strategy and team to improve the visitor offer in London and attract new experiences for major events.

This role requires the ability to build excellent relationships to effectively lead manage and influence multiple key stakeholders from a variety of public and private organisation. This includes improving access to data for London’s placemakers, creating a citywide sustainability programme, and improving the city’s visitor offer.

Candidate Skills

* Able to demonstrable experience of identifying creating and managing high value partnership with a strategic mindset able to think long-term and see the big picture to identify and implement new opportunities

* Proven experience of leading teams to design and deliver high profile placemaking programmes with demonstrable outcomes

* Strong leadership, people management, development skills and proven ability to create a team environment that encourages ownership

* You will have evidence of customer first data led approach to placemaking

* Excellent communication skills written and spoken

* Relationships with stakeholders in London and nationally from boroughs and business improvement districts to regional national and international commercial organisations

Duties

* You will lead and deliver the visitor experience strategy and team to improve the visitor offer and experience in London.

* Create and deliver a destination management programme to attract new experiences, develop a sustainability programme, and improve visitor infrastructure.

* Form excellent working relationships to lead, convene and influence key placemakers across the city, including the Greater London Authority, boroughs, business improvement districts, developers, landowners, experience owners and major brands.

* You will define and manage programmes to deliver the visitor experience strategy including attracting new experiences and events to London, developing a city-wide sustainability programme, improving the visitor welcome

* Develop and manage partnerships to support key placemakers by defining and delivering key support programmes for data and insights, product development and marketing

* Build and manage relationships at a senior level influence and connect the city’s placemakers whilst identifying and encouraging collaborative opportunities aligned to the strategy

* Attend key stakeholder meetings, influence, and connect the strategies of key stakeholders

* Scope and manage new programmes and commercial opportunities to gain experience consumer spend in the city’s leisure and visitor economy

* Work with the major events team to attract headline events and experiences to animate the city, helping put new destinations on the map and amplifying London’s brand.

* Collaborate with the consumer marketing team to improve perceptions of London and influence visitor decision making through owned, earned, and paid channels

* Lead and mentor the visitor experience team, overseeing the coordination and delivery of placemaking activity

* You will collaborate closely with your colleagues across the business to ensure they support the visitors experience strategy through their work