Nottingham, Monday, 17 November 2025.
Center Parcs completed a shake-up of senior marketing in November, adding three leaders to accelerate brand investment and product-led marketing across its UK resorts. One recruit comes from Merlin Entertainments and brings IP-led creative, cross-park product positioning and multisite campaign experience, signalling a move to centralised creative governance and tighter product-marketing integration. For retail and on-site operations this could mean stricter creative standards for attractions, revised in-park programming, and reallocated budgets toward content and experience-led campaigns that drive demand. The team will also strengthen capabilities in partnerships, licensing and CRM-led yield management, increasing capacity to coordinate resort launches and commercial collaborations. The hires reflect competition for theme-park marketing talent and underscore Center Parcs’ intent to treat attractions and retail as strategic levers for growth. Retail professionals should watch for faster campaign cycles, elevated merchandising briefs and closer alignment between product teams and creative governance. Expect clearer briefs and measurement dashboards.
November hires and what was announced
Center Parcs announced a reshuffle of its UK marketing leadership in November with three senior appointments intended to step up brand investment and product-led marketing across its short-break resorts. The new senior hires are named in the announcement as Sarah Vickery (ecommerce and CX director), Gillian Blair (head of marketing planning) and Stuart O’Neill (executive creative director), working beneath CMO Sara Holt and alongside CCO Richard Sofer, who joined earlier from TUI UK and Ireland [1].
Recruit backgrounds signal IP-led and multisite creative capability
Among the recruits, at least one joins from Merlin Entertainments and is credited with leading creative for Resort Theme Parks and Attractions — experience that includes cross-park product positioning, IP-led creative delivery and oversight of campaigns across multiple sites. Marketing Week notes prior roles across Merlin, Selfridges and Ticketmaster for the new leadership team, and highlights O’Neill’s earlier work redesigning Center Parcs’ website in 2007 [1].
Immediate commercial context and recent trading
Center Parcs operates five villages in the UK and one in Ireland, and the business reported recent trading in which revenue for the 12 weeks to 17 July was £146.8 million, up from £135.6 million in the same period the prior year — a topline increase explicitly reported by the company in the coverage of its leadership changes [1]. The proportional increase can be expressed as 8.26 using the figures disclosed in the report [1].
Operational implications for resorts, retail and programming
The hires point to a centralisation of creative governance and tighter integration of product and marketing: centralized creative leadership with IP experience typically enables stricter creative standards for attractions and retail, faster campaign cycles and closer alignment between merchandising briefs and resort product teams — all mechanisms cited by industry reporting as likely outcomes of elevating brand and creative stewardship within multisite leisure operators [1][4].
Marketing-driven demand activation and budget reallocation
By hiring leaders with ecommerce, CX, planning and creative remit, Center Parcs signals intent to reallocate more resource into content- and experience-led campaigns that drive short-break demand, support resort launches and activate partnerships and licensing deals. Marketing Week frames the appointments as part of a broader push to ‘elevate the brand and drive significant growth’ under the new CMO team, implying a shift toward investment in brand and digital guest experience [1].
Wider industry implications: talent flows and competitive pressure
The appointments underline competition for seasoned theme-park and attractions marketing talent and reflect movement of leaders between major operators and adjacent retail and ticketing businesses. Industry bodies and trade reporting note similar people flows and high-profile moves across the attractions sector; IAAPA’s industry engagement and conference programming frequently spotlights leadership moves, partnership activity and expansions that affect how operators staff creative and commercial functions [4]. In parallel, trade round-ups identify cross-sector candidate movement as a recurring theme in 2025 people coverage [7].
On-the-ground staffing signals and timing
While strategic senior hires reshape governance, operational hiring continues at venue level: public recruitment listings show Center Parcs is also hiring site-level roles such as Spa Team Leader at Aqua Sana Forest Spa in Warminster, an ad that lists pay and contract details and a closing date in mid-November — a reminder that changes at the top coincide with day-to-day recruitment to deliver guest experience on site [2].
Implications for commercial teams and measurement
For retail and commercial leaders, the new structure should mean clearer creative briefs, shorter campaign lead times and more rigorous measurement dashboards tying content and promotions to yield and CRM outcomes; Marketing Week describes the hires as strengthening capabilities across ecommerce, CX and planning, which are the operational levers commonly used to translate brand campaigns into measurable revenue at resort scale [1].
How this fits the owner group’s scale and strategic priorities
Center Parcs is part of Groupe Pierre & Vacances‑Center Parcs, a European holiday group that publishes consolidated financials and strategic priorities for holiday and resort brands; the broader group context frames Center Parcs’ marketing investment as part of a corporate push toward brand differentiation and sustainable, locally engaged tourism practices reported on the group site and in its financial summaries [3].
Bronnen