Hotels.com, the world’s most visited hotel booking site*, has appointed Matt Walls as its Director of Marketing Operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Matt will take overall responsibility for the marketing of the business across EMEA.

Matt, who has been Head of Marketing at Hotels.com since 2003, has been promoted to Director to lead the company’s expanding marketing operations across the region. He will be responsible for the strategy and execution of all of Hotels.com EMEA online and offline marketing and will continue to grow the strong in-house team.

This year Hotels.com has launched local language sites in Croatia, Lithuania, Turkey, Iceland, Turkey, Ukraine, Estonia, Greece and many other countries – bringing the total of EMEA sites to 31, 24 of which are localised.

Nigel Pocklington, Managing Director for Hotels.com EMEA said: “Matt brings substantial experience to the role, especially in the key field of online marketing, where he will be driving our paid and natural search marketing strategies, as well as growing our affiliate marketing and display channels. He has also successfully overseen Hotels.com’s brand marketing in the UK and other European markets, and will be able to bring his experience of this to bear as we continue to grow. ”

Prior to joining Hotels.com, Matt was Head of European Sales and Marketing for Buzz, the UK’s third largest low-cost airline, where he launched the brand in mainland Europe, and went on to lead its commercial development outside the UK. Before this, he was at GB Airways Limited, where he was responsible for UK travel trade marketing and was tasked with the development of all revenues outside the UK, as well as setting up an overseas sales force.

* Hotels.com website is the most visited in the ‘Hotels/Accommodation provider’ category, according to comScore Media Metrix (Jan-Dec 2007).