Maja Pawinska Sims 19 Oct 2021 // 4:47PM GMT
LONDON — One Green Bean has expanded its travel, tourism and transport offer with three hires to support brands and organisations as the world starts to re-open for travel.
Sarah Longbottom (pictured, left) joins the agency as business Director to lead a satellite team of six in Doha, where she will be based full-time. The team handles the global PR remit for Qatar Tourism as the country prepares to host the FIFA World Cup 2022 and wishes to position itself as one of the Middle East’s top holiday destinations.
She was previously a director at Consulum in Saudi Arabia and director of strategy and planning at Cicero & Bernay Public Relations in Dubai, working on the public, commercial and political drivers of travel and tourism in the Middle East.
Longbottom spent a decade as a journalist and editor for travel publications Travel Weekly and TTG, and also held senior roles in specialist travel and aviation agencies and at Engage Bell Pottinger, working with clients including The Jamaica Tourist Board, Cessna Aircraft, South African Tourism, IHG and London City Airport.
Sarah Barnett (pictured, right) also joins One Green Bean as business director – she will be based in the UK to lead the European remit for Qatar Tourism and the UK remit for Visit Jersey. She joins from specialist travel, lifestyle and property marketing agency Black Diamond.
Barnett has promoted a wide range of destinations and airlines over her career, including America, Japan, Tahiti, Slovenia, Western Australia, Montenegro, Morocco, Air Malta and SriLankan Airlines. In-house, Barnett was communications director for Brand USA and regional PR manager for Tourism Australia.
In addition, Grace Verdon has joined as a senior account manager, after experience working with Visit California, Aspen Snowmass and Lufthansa Group.
One Green Bean’s founder and global ECD Kat Thomas said: “2022 will be a huge year for travel and we’re thrilled to be investing in deeper category expertise just as destinations, airlines, hotel groups and more are motivated to increase market share, as people catch up on travel domestically and overseas”.
The agency’s travel, tourism and transport clients in its London office also include Hotels.com, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays. One Green Bean has also delivered projects for Eurostar, Heathrow Airport and Heathrow Express.