Russell Meara: Propelling the Travel Industry's Social Renaissance with Hablo

Navigating the shifting landscapes of the travel industry, Russell Meara has remained a steadfast compass, guiding the sector towards novel and promising horizons. An industry veteran of 25 years, Russell has spent that time building relationships, bridging gaps, and paving the way for innovation. His journey from the football field to the boardrooms of the travel sector offers a fascinating testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and a team-focused ethos that he honed as a professional athlete.

Russell began his professional journey in an unlikely place - the world of professional football. "Looking back now, I can see how those formative years probably subconsciously, influenced my career journey," he reflects, drawing parallels between those early years and his current position in the world of business.

He continues; "When you grow up playing team sports, you quickly learn to depend on the small number of teammates around you to work together in order to succeed. I can now understand why I’ve spent my career feeling very comfortable working within small businesses, and now start-ups, where everyone in the company can and must make an impact to be successful."

Indeed, Russell's vision for collective success is evident in his latest venture which he co-founded: Hablo, a trailblazing social media platform designed to streamline communications within the travel industry and foster collaborations that fuel recovery and growth. The platform links travel agents, tour operators, destinations, and private sector travel brands on a global scale, reflecting his far-reaching vision and commitment to the industry's collective progress.

The entrepreneur's more than 25-year career in the travel industry began with a role as a sales agent and led to him holding key positions across sales, marketing, and product departments in some of the UK's leading tour operators. He then shifted gears to represent top global destinations, first as a Sales and Marketing Account Director and then as an Associate Director at Hills Balfour, the UK's leading travel and tourism communications agency.

Here, his knack for identifying, recommending, driving, and developing new business opportunities began to truly shine.

Russell's story is one of a travel industry veteran who shows no signs of slowing down, proving that the spirit of innovation and collaboration can make all the difference. From his early days at Southampton FC to the years at the helm of leading travel and tourism organizations, Russell demonstrates a deep-seated understanding of the power of teamwork and shared goals.

In the interview that follows, we dive deeper into Russell's diverse career, exploring the intersections of his past experiences, how they shape his leadership style today and much more...

Can you share some highlights of your career journey, from your first sales agent role to holding senior management positions in the UK's leading tour operators?

I’ve been lucky enough to have worked within - and helped grow - some highly successful travel businesses in my career. This has also meant that I’ve learnt from some of the best entrepreneurs and business owners along the way.

Within my very first travel company, Canadian Affair, I grew from an entry level sales agent to the Sales and Marketing Director in 5 years and then from Sales and Marketing Manager to Associate Director at Hills Balfour in 9 years.

It’s probably one of the things I love about small businesses. The ability, and in many cases, the business requirement to promote internally and to develop your staff so they can achieve their true potential and make a positive impact on the business. Being just ‘a number’ on payroll has never been something I could ever be a part of.

You write that you co-founded Hablo to “help our industry reconnect and rebuild personal and business relationships.” What motivated you to co-found Hablo, and how does it address the current challenges and needs of the travel industry?

As with many startups, the idea and motivation behind Hablo was years in the making, centered around the challenges I faced within my varied industry roles. The pandemic, however, certainly magnified some of those challenges and created new ones along the way. This has really given the team a sense of purpose - help support and rebuild an industry which has given us so much over the years. As an industry, we’ve never truly been connected in the most efficient way, with many sales strategies relying on old fashioned marketing techniques and gatekeepers who allege to hold industry databases - databases which are now completely out of date due to the seismic shift in not only the travel industry landscape, but the workforce, post-pandemic.

Hablo is creating a new digital home for the travel industry, connecting us directly for the very first time. Our online platform and offline events bring us together in one destination to enable positive collaboration, interaction and growth in a modern and user-friendly way.

What are some of the key strategies that Hablo employs in its mission to connect the travel industry?

Hablo employs a number of innovative features to connect organisations and users in a new way, allowing training and sales programs to be conducted with a ‘below the line,’ targeted approach to help everyone benefit from more meaningful relationships and increased ROI.

Our mission is to keep our industry up to date, engaged and empowered, providing efficient foundations for continued success through industry specific sales and marketing tools.

We exist to support and streamline the industry’s day to day processes, helping teams save valuable time so they can focus on what they do best, now and into the future. Hablo brings a world of functionality into a single place without the need for downloads, add-ons or installing software. Users just open their favourite web browser. We also let organisations build their home the way they want it. They can choose to invite all of their partners on board or just open the door to specific, key organisations.

How has the travel industry bounced back since Covid-19 and what role is Hablo playing in aiding the recovery process?

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the industry was decimated by the pandemic and the overall landscape has changed, potentially forever. It’s been a long road to recovery and whilst demand for travel has rebounded, many of the travel companies are still experiencing challenges with trying to return to full operating capacity. What is universal across the industry is the challenge of human resources, and bringing people either back into the industry, or into it for the first time.

This has meant that many of the pre-pandemic, traditional ways of training staff and engaging in sales programs have changed. Time is, now more than ever, a scarce commodity - so there is an immediate need for driving efficiencies in all areas of each business, internally and externally.

Hablo has been specifically created to address and solve these new challenges and we’re building new functionality and features based on constant feedback.

What are some of the most significant lessons you've learned throughout your career in the travel industry, and how do you apply these insights to your work at Hablo?

Travel has, and always will be, a sociable industry and the people are one of the main reasons that so many love working within it. Personal relationships and in-person facetime will always be a pre-requisite of building commercially beneficial relationships, even in the new digital age.

Whilst we created the Hablo platform to drive efficiencies in day to day work processes, we also launched our in-person live events program called ‘Hablo Unplugged,' specifically to acknowledge that personal, shared experiences with industry contacts is still essential. These events are informal networking opportunities that also incorporate live music to create a celebratory atmosphere. ‘Unplugged’ has become known as one of the best live event programs in the industry and we couldn’t be prouder.

We also created our 'Hablo Talks' series so we can learn more about the people within our industry. The travel industry is built on incredible people and the series celebrates that, capturing fireside discussions with influential members of the travel industry from around the world, about their careers and experiences to date.

How do you stay updated with the latest trends and innovations in the travel industry, and how do you incorporate these insights into your work at Hablo?

One of the great benefits of working with an industry-wide platform such as Hablo is that I get to meet and talk to such a wide variety of people on a day to day basis, to learn all about them and their current challenges. It’s a truly advantageous position to be in as I’m constantly talking to operators, DMO’s, hotels and airlines who also inform me of all of the trends they are seeing in the industry. Hablo was built by industry veterans for the industry and we’ll only ever evolve the platform based on their needs, which makes it so important to understand what those needs are.

We also have an amazing technical team that are constantly proposing new technologies that can help further support the platform and its users. We are on the precipice of some exciting new innovations within the digital world that will offer huge opportunities for the industry to be at the leading edge of the technological curve.

What advice do you have for professionals looking to enter the travel industry?

Commit to the industry. It’s a dynamic, rewarding industry to work in and if you’re looking for a career that can take you as far and wide as you want to go then jump in and enjoy yourself.

How do you envision the future of travel? How do you think AI will affect the industry?

The future of travel is a huge topic to cover! Certainly the challenges of sustainability and over tourism are of paramount importance as we look to combat climate change in the immediate term.

From a technology and innovation perspective, the future is exciting for the industry. We’ve never been an industry that truly embraced technology - we have so many traditional work practices ingrained in our industry psyche - but the pandemic has forced many sectors to adopt new digital processes. I believe the only way to solve the new challenges that we now face will be through technology. AI is undoubtedly the hot topic at the moment and at Hablo, we’re already exploring how this new tech can complement the industry. We’re certainly excited to be at the forefront of the tech revolution in travel!

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