Our Team

Deirdre Wells OBE
Chief Executive

​ Deirdre Wells OBE was appointed as CEO of Go To Places in September 2018.  Prior to her appointment to Go To Places, Deirdre was Chief Executive of UKinbound, representing nearly 400 UK inbound tourism   businesses. During her tenure at UKinbound, Deirdre was a passionate advocate on behalf of the industry on a broad range of issues including the impact of Brexit, Visas, Air Passenger Duty and skills.  

Deirdre joined UKinbound following 20 years in Government at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport working on a variety of high-profile projects including the Millennium Dome, Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 and the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.  As Head of Tourism, Deirdre was instrumental in the delivery of the GREAT campaign – an ambitious and far-reaching marketing campaign promoting Britain as a great place to visit, study, work, invest, and do business.

Deirdre was awarded an OBE in 2007 in recognition of her work in leading the team behind the national memorial services for the UK victims of the 9/11 attacks, the Bali bombings, the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the London 7/7 attacks. 

She is Chair of English Tourism Week and sits on the Board of the Tourism Alliance - she is also a former Board member of The Tourism Society.

Hollie Du Preez
Destination Partnerships Director

Hollie leads the destination partnerships team who build relationships with industry partners in our destinations. Hollie account manages our core funding and strategic partners including transport operators, national organisations, Local Authorities and LEPs to ensure that our activity aligns with wider objectives and supports economic growth. Hollie also leads on  GTP’s place-making projects and develops business with other destinations and funding bids.

Steve Law
Head of Programme Delivery

As our Head of Programme Delivery, Steve is highly experienced in project managing tourism projects across multiple destinations. This most recently includes the Discover England Funded projects (Gourmet Garden Trails and England's Creative Coast) and the South East LEP Covid-19 Business Support Visitor Economy programme for Kent, Essex and East Sussex. Steve ensures that each of our projects run to time, budget and  importantly, meet the expectations of our clients.

Jim Dawson
Head of Creative Digital and Marketing

 Jim ensures clear oversight of all marketing and digital activity. He is   responsible for the team producing all content across the GTP portfolio,   and oversees our communications strategy. Jim heads up the creative   content for all campaigns and digital channels to optimise consumer   engagement and reach. He is also responsible for ensuring the marketing   team delivers GTP's consumer and corporate communications strategy.

Raluca Brebeanu
Head of Research

Raluca is responsible for developing and delivering core B2B and B2C  destination studies, from economic impact and regular destination  performance to perception research. Raluca manages bespoke commercial research contracts and large scale national and cross-border European  projects. Raluca works very closely with the Marketing & Partnerships  teams, ensuring that our research expertise branches out across the work we deliver, to ensure our recommendations follow an intelligence led  approach.

Sophie Hewitt
Digital Campaigns Manager

 Sophie is responsible for the our B2C digital marketing activity. With the   Marketing team, Sophie leads on the content strategy across all of GTP's   consumer digital channels, using paid promotions and analytics to grow   audiences, reach and engagement. Sophie is also the marketing lead on   the DEF project Gourmet Garden Trails, responsible for the creation of its   consumer content, including liaising with regional partners and building   new itineraries for projects.

Alanna Kite
Destination Manager - Travel Trade

Our resident Travel Trade expert, Alanna develops and manages GTP's  overseas and travel trade strategies, to ensure growth and exposure of our destinations and products to the global travel trade industry. Alanna has a number of years experience in working with the travel trade and has successful Trade relationships across Europe, China and the US.

Louisa Mungall
Destination Manager - Partnerships & Skills

As Destination Manager, Louisa is responsible for developing effective  partnerships with key industry stakeholders, specifically local authority  partners. Previously part of VisitScotland’s Business Events team, Louisa leads on developing GTP’s Business Events Partnership strategies to raise our  destination profiles in the MICE industry and support inward investment  priorities.