ROBERT Halfpenny has been appointed as Quark Expeditions’ new Director of Sales for Australia, with the move also seeing a significant expansion of the expedition specialist’s local sales operations.
Halfpenny (pictured) was most recently Aurora Expeditions MD (CW 30 Jun 2020), with his local career also including senior roles with Virgin Australia, Globus and Rocky Mountaineer.
He takes up his new Regional Sales Director role effective 01 Oct, and will lead a team including Thomas Hosemans, most recently Australasia Sales Consultant with Exodus Travels, a sister company to Quark.
Also joining Quark this month is Polar Travel Sales Advisor Alana Lewthwaite, with the team including Monize Diniz as well as former G Adventures and Chimu Adventures executive Tenille Hunt, who joined Quark in May.
The expansion comes in the lead-up to the debut of Quark’s new Ultramarine polar expedition ship, which was delivered earlier this year (CW 07 Apr) complete with two helicopters, 20 Zodiacs, advanced sustainability systems and “the largest portfolio of off-ship adventure options in the industry”.
Halfpenny said he was thrilled to join the Quark Expeditions team and continue to build the brand and sales with the trade in the Asia-Pacific marketplace.
“I have admired Quark Expeditions’ commitment over the last 31 years to consistently pioneer new life-changing polar experiences for their guests.
“Quark Expeditions has robust plans for developing and building the brand in the APAC region and I am extremely excited to work with the global sales team and reconnect with my travel industry network,” he said.
Halfpenny will report to Seattle-based Thomas Lennartz, Quark VP of Sales and Global Partnership Director, Meg Murgatroyd to collectively build “closer, more effective partnerships with tour operators, as well as wholesale and retail travel partners globally”.
Previously Quark’s local sales were led by Jarrod Zurvas, who earlier this month relocated to Greece to take up his new role as Director of Global Sales for Variety Cruises (CW 06 Sep).
