Voyages CEO resigns
Wednesday, 5 April 2006
Voyages CEO and Managing Director, Grant Hunt, today announced his resignation following 10 years at the helm of this leading Australian tourism organisation.
"I have spent a substantial part of my working career with Voyages and I believe that it is now time to look outside the organisation for my next opportunity." Mr. Hunt said.
While acknowledging this as a difficult decision, Mr Hunt believes the timing to be right as owners, GPT and the Voyages Executive Management team are in a strong position to take the company into the future.
Damien Thomas, Voyages CFO, will act in Mr. Hunt's role until a replacement is found.
Mr Hunt began with the company in 1996 and has grown the organisation from a single resort in Central Australia to a globally renowned, diversified, sustainable tourism specialist with 23 properties under management in some of the most remote and spectacular wilderness locations in Australia.
Along with GPT, he led the acquisition of P&O Australian Resorts in July, 2004 and El Questro Wilderness Park in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia in July, 2005.
In addition Mr. Hunt achieved a career highlight when his vision for Australia's first true luxury tented wilderness safari camp was realised with the building of the spectacular Longitude 131° adjacent to Uluru.
Of critical importance to Hunt is that he and the Voyages team have endeavoured along the way to make a difference to the communities in which they operate. This included the establishment of the Green Guardians project in the Daintree Rainforest and the Mutitjulu Foundation in Central Australia. This initiative was set up to relieve poverty and improve the standards of education and healthcare for the indigenous Mutitjulu community, Voyages' closest neighbours at Uluru.
These initiatives and many others undertaken by the company were chronicled in a Community and Environment Report - the first for Voyages and the tourism industry which Hunt hopes to become a benchmark for the way tourism operators do business in Australia.
Mr. Hunt departs the company on Friday, 21 April.
Editors Note:
For more information and/or images please contact Damien Hanger on phone:
+61 2 8296 8055, or email: damien.hanger@voyages.com.au
Voyages is an Australian travel company, providing experience-based holidays in spectacular wilderness locations including the Red Centre, Queensland, The Kimberley and Tasmania. Voyages operate award-winning properties such as Ayers Rock Resort, Longitude 131°, Lizard Island, Silky Oaks Lodge and Cradle Mountain Lodge.