There are significant executive level recruitment opportunities, as firms restructure, according to travel recruitment firms.

As tour operator Wendy Wu and airline Iberia both announce new senior hires, Julia Feuell, managing director at New Frontiers, told Recruiterthat the travel industry has been doing a lot of restructuring at board level to ensure they have the right skills available to ride through the recession.

“This has created a ‘boardroom shuffle’ effect with senior execs losing their jobs, as well as creating new senior level opportunities - all to ensure the right skill set in the boardroom.

“New Frontiers has been involved in offering board directors access to business executive coaches to help them with the recession. Most of the advice sought by SMEs has been for business strategy and restructuring.”

Nina Johnson-Bennett, managing director at Management Search Executive, adds: “The past few months has seen a significant slowdown in executive recruitment. However, fallout in certain market sectors have provided opportunities for high calibre professionals. Yet despite the economic negativity to identify top talent.”