Mary Pat Sullivan is no stranger to the travel industry, and she’s certainly no stranger to Northstar Travel Group (NTG), the parent company powering travel trade publications Travel Weekly, TravelPulse, TravelAge West and Agent@Home Magazine.
Effective today, after working for more than 15 years as an independent contractor for NTG, Sullivan will assume the role of Senior Vice President, Marketing for NTG’s Retail Travel Group.
In the role, she will spearhead marketing strategies for NTG publications in a move that will “unify the Retail Group’s structure while maintaining brand integrity across our portfolio,” according to Anthony Carnevale, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher for NTG’s Retail Travel Group, in an internal memo announcing the hire.
“With this move, we have connected the marketing staff of the Retail Travel Group to create a more collaborative team,” he said.
With this move, we have connected the marketing staff of the Retail Travel Group to create a more collaborative team.
Sullivan has long been known as a friendly face for the travel advisor community, attending and acting as an industry liaison and brand ambassador during annual NTG events including Global Travel Marketplace, Global Travel Marketplace West, Cruise World and the Travel Weekly Hawaii Leadership Forum.
When she’s not engaging travel advisors on the event stage with her quick wit and energetic personality, she is often found in NTG’s virtual studios, where she moderates, develops content for and acts as a sales liaison for more than 90 Travel Weekly and TravelAge West webinars each year.
Sullivan began her career in travel publishing in 1988, when she was hired as a beat reporter for Tour & Travel News. For the next 12 years, she continued to sport her journalism hat while serving in several roles within travel publishing before transitioning to vice president of marketing communications for The Travel Institute (where she earned her Certified Travel Counselor designation in 1996). In addition to her role as an independent contractor for NTG, Sullivan has also provided consulting services to travel clients and has been working as a leisure travel analyst for Phocuswright (also under the NTG umbrella) for more than a decade.
Throughout all her travel industry roles, she’s put the travel advisor community at the forefront.
“I have spent my entire career in the leisure travel space, facilitating and exploring the relationship between travel industry suppliers and the professional travel advisor community,” Sullivan said. “I am so excited to be a part of these industry leading brands as we record history and grow our businesses together with travel advisors leading the industry into the future.”
