Club Med announces two APAC promotions

All-inclusive holiday provider Club Med has announced a series of promotions across its Asia-Pacific business to strengthen the brand’s presence within the region.

Rachael Harding (pictured above) has been appointed Club Med’s CEO for the East, South Asia and Pacific (ESAP), and Michelle Davies as general manager of the Pacific, both effective immediately.

The new ESAP business unit has been introduced to provide an extra layer of functional support to bolster the region, and is in response to Club Med’s growth across APAC prior to the pandemic, and consequent demand for domestic resorts throughout the last year – particularly in China, which also gains its own business unit.

Harding will be relocating to Shanghai and be responsible for all of Club Med’s ESAP commercial markets, with the objective to drive an aggressive rebound while seeking new emerging market opportunities within the region.

She will report directly to Club Med president Henri Giscard D’Estaing.

Replacing Harding as GM for the Pacific, Davies will lead all aspects of Club Med’s commercial office across sales, marketing, pricing, human resources and finance.

Most recently, Davies most served as head of marketing for the Pacific. Prior to this role, she spent five years as Club Med’s marketing director for the UK and Nordics.

“Davies was an integral part of the UK and Nordics market success, contributing to their record sales by anchoring Club Med as a leader in the all-inclusive ski market, while successfully driving the brand’s upscale and premium positioning, which is critical to the Pacific’s future success,” Harding said.

“Davies’ valued contribution to the brand across the Pacific, UK and Nordics makes her the absolute right choice to lead the Pacific out of this crisis and back to double-digit growth.”

Commenting on her promotion, Davies said: “I’m honoured to be named general manager of the Pacific, and I’m looking forward to using my experience to accelerate the growth of this region as part of our rebound strategy.”

“With trade representing a high weight of our sales, we know our partners are essential to our rebound strategy.”

As part of its trade-specific strategy, Club Med announced the appointment of Lisa Bacon to the newly created head of sales position for the Pacific in February this year.

“It’s an exciting time for Club Med in the Pacific, which has attracted such a talented team of female leaders who are driving fresh ideas and great culture during the most challenging time for the travel industry, which not only reinforces Club Med’s future, but is reflective of the resilience of the Australian and New Zealand market,” Harding said.