Robbert Dee

Co-founder, New Deal Europe

Robert Dee was introduced to the Balkans in the mid 1980’s when he took a job straight from university as a tour leader on Cosmos Tourama’s ‘Jewels of Yugoslavia Tour’, so beginning a lifelong affiliation with the region. Since then he has held senior roles in the travel industry including stints as Director of Global Leisure Sales at Radisson Hotels, one of the world’s top 10 hotel companies. Prior to that he headed up the hotel contracting team at GTA when it went through rapid expansion to become the leading inbound operator in Europe. In a role which pre-dated the likes of Booking.com he lead the way, heading up a team which contracted a staggering 38,000 hotels annually. He is known to many in the industry through his role as a former Chair of the supplier members of the European Tourism Association, where he represented the interests of hotels, tourism attractions, transport providers, and technology companies on its executive board. Robert is a co-founder of New Deal Europe, a company with a mission to drive more tourism to the Balkans and South East Europe, and is a passionate supporter of tourism enterprises in this fast developing region of Europe. In this role he regularly meets with tourism ministers, international development agencies and national tourism boards, and is a regular panellist on tourism seminars in the Region.