Jo Hickson will take on the newly created role, which will include the running of the Tui Holiday Lab.

Hickson, who will report into director of strategic business change and innovation Jeremy Osborne, is charged by the operator with

“anticipating the next advances in technology and customer behaviour”.

Holiday Lab, which was launched in March, was created to “explore and develop new and emerging technologies” within the travel industry.

Hickson previously spent five years at Home Retail Group as group head of innovation and has also held the position of global product manager at telecommunications company Telefonica.

“It’s great to be back at Tui UK and Ireland where I started my career,” Hickson said. “This is an exciting time for the business and the launch of the Tui Holiday Lab marks a real passion for innovation and new technologies.”

Osborne added: “With the creation of this new role, we now have a strong team working together to anticipate our customers’ future needs and create innovative solutions.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to set the vision and agenda for innovation at Tui UK, and I’m delighted to be working with Jo and the rest of the team to create genuine business change to benefit our customers.”