Trade Development Manager

Travel Trade Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 36,000 - 44,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment agency seeks a Trade Manager to oversee relationships with travel agents in London. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in the travel trade, strong negotiation skills, and be confident in communicating and building relationships. This role offers a salary of up to £40,000 and involves managing agent onboarding, training, and queries, along with creating trade incentives. The position is office-based for at least three days a week, with occasional travel for events.

Qualifications

• Proven experience working with travel agents or within the travel trade.
• Confident communicator with excellent relationship‑building ability.
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Identify, negotiate, and sign commercial agreements with new travel agent partners.
• Manage and grow existing agent relationships, acting as the primary point of contact.
• Lead trading conversations, reviews, and performance discussions with key partners.

Skills

Negotiation skills

Commercial awareness

Relationship-building

Organisational skills

Proactiveness

Job description

Are you a Trade Manager looking for a new challenge? We're looking for an ambitious, commercially minded individual to take ownership of our trade relationships and help grow this side of the business as far as it can go. This is a rare opportunity to shape and define a growing area of the business, with real influence over how we work with the trade and how that channel develops over time. The ideal candidate will be motivated, commercially astute, highly organised, and confident working with self-people. You'll be comfortable taking ownership, making decisions, and building relationships both internally and externally.

The Job:

• Identify, negotiate, and sign commercial agreements with new travel agent partners
• Manage and grow existing agent relationships, acting as the primary point of contact
• Lead trading conversations, reviews, and performance discussions with key partners
• Ensure all new agents are fully onboarded, trained, and confident in what we offer
• Deliver product and brand training, ensuring agents understand how to sell us effectively
• Respond to agent queries across email, phone, and chat in a timely and professional manner
• Devise, manage, and communicate trade offers, incentives, and campaigns
• Communicate offers via email and relevant social channels
• Create and grow a dedicated trade-focused social channel to engage and inform agents
• Produce accurate and timely quotes for agents
• Process agent bookings through to confirmation; ensure all booking documentation is issued correctly, including confirmations and invoices
• Liaise with operations to resolve booking queries or issues
• Work closely with finance to ensure all due payments are collected on time
• Assist with resolving payment queries or discrepancies
• Manage agent sign‑ups, system access, and account administration
• Conduct market and competitor research to identify demand trends and opportunities
• Feed insights into product development and assist with building products that meet trade demand

Job requirements:

• Proven experience working with travel agents or within the travel trade
• Strong commercial awareness and negotiation skills
• Confident communicator with excellent relationship‑building ability
• Highly organised with strong attention to detail
• Comfortable managing multiple workstreams and taking full ownership
• Proactive, solutions‑focused, and motivated to build something from the ground up

The Package:

• Salary up to £40,000
• The role is office‑based in London for a minimum of three days per week, with some travel required to attend industry events, trade shows, and conferences.

Interested:

If you are interested in the above vacancy, please click 'APPLY' or email your cv to [e-mail].