Speaking with Richard De Villa

We sat down with Richard De Villa, Head of Marketing UK & Europe at Malaysia Airlines, to discuss his career, his successes and the challenges he’s faced working within the travel industry during a global pandemic. 

Richard is an experienced, ambitious, and driven marketing lead in the travel industry. With a 14+ year record of achievement in brand management, execution of multiple platform marketing campaigns, establishing/maintaining strong relationships with travel trade and media organisations, Richard is one of the leaders in his field. He is an intuitive business leader with extensive expertise in digital marketing, multi-channel development, market penetration, destination promotions and organising publicity campaigns to drive revenue.

Richard started his career in the travel industry at the Department of Tourism at the Philippines Embassy, where he led the travel trade promotions for the Philippines with the UK travel industry and was tasked with developing new partners for the Philippines. After almost 11 years at the Embassy, Richard moved to Malaysia Airlines where he now heads up the marketing activities for the UK and Europe. 

Richard talks about the wonderful benefits of working within the travel industry, recalling being lucky enough to visit up to four countries a year, something which he hopes to continue post-COVID. However, he has been open about the struggles of being a marketer in the travel industry throughout the pandemic. With borders closed and only essential travel taking place travel marketers have had to refocus their messaging in the most sensitive and sensible ways possible and providing clear messaging has been vital during this time. 

Being a leader in the marketing industry, Richard says that the best investment you can make is in the people you work with. Surrounding yourself with people who have a positive influence on you and that you can learn from is the best investment you can make.

Richard also discusses how beneficial being part of virtual events has been for him during the last year. From moderating Virtual Roundtables to speaking at virtual summits, he explains how the opportunity to surround yourself with inspiring people, to learn from them and to hear new perspectives is what attracts him the most to these kinds of events

To hear more of Richard’s insights on the biggest opportunities in marketing right now, the value of partnerships and the last advertising campaign that made him make a purchase check out the full interview below.