Turas Hotels, which recently purchased Aviemore’s landmark Cairngorm Hotel, has undertaken a ‘complete leadership refinement’ as it targets further acquisitions and growth in Scotland.
Formerly the J and R Group, Turas Hotels has properties the length of the A9 tourist spine, currently offering nearly 80,000 room nights annually.
Its portfolio comprises the Cairngorm Hotel and Boat Country Inn in the Cairngorms National Park, the Seaforth in Ullapool, McKays in Pitlochry, and the Glen Mhor Hotel, plus Uile-bheist Distillery and Brewery, in Inverness.
The headline management move sees Jennifer Macdonald-Nethercott promoted to head of marketing.
Macdonald-Nethercott has 25 years of experience in Highlands hospitality, and spearheaded the recent rebrand to Turas, which means ‘journey’ in Gaelic. She will now be responsible for rolling out the group’s ‘Stay-Discover-Dine’ vision and customer rewards scheme.
Johan Van Heerden, previously of the Boat Country Inn, has been appointed as the group’s first internal revenue manager.
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 the group’s overall director of sustainability.
In other moves, Delia Keating takes up a key role as group head of recruitment, with Fiona Connor leading on HR, while Charlotte Sukhraj, who previously worked with Radisson and Marriot, and Peter Thornton, ex Historic Environment Scotland, are now group sales managers.
“We knew marketing would have a major role to play moving forward,” said Turas Hotels director, Richard Drummond. “Jennifer understands the vision and was a natural choice for us.”
The new appointments, it is hoped, will help the growing business cement its place within the Highlands 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.”
Macdonald-Nethercott added: “This is a really exciting position. 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.”
