our team

Stephen Morton
Founder / CEO / Managing Editor

Global Travel Media’s Managing Editor, Stephen Morton, brings over thirty years of experience in the travel industry. Working in every aspect of the travel trade – from travel wholesalers, airlines to working in a family-owned travel business – Stephen was also the founder of e-Travel Blackboard, which under his direction, became Australia’s number one daily travel news service.

Expanding the electronic news service beyond Australasia to international distribution and readership, Stephen and his team of experienced travel trade journalists are now delivering the world’s most comprehensive and dependable travel industry news bulletins each day.

Matthew Thomas
Publisher and Director North America

Matt Thomas, formerly Managing Editor, America for Global Travel Media, has been named Publisher of the global publication. Matt will be based in both Bangkok and San Francisco and will be responsible for making the publication an editorial and commercial success in Southeast Asia and North America.

In addition to managing the business operations of Global Travel Media, Matt will maintain the publication’s high-quality content, oversee sales and marketing, and maximize revenue and profit.

A former Vice President of Sales for Alaska Airlines, Matt has worked with five airlines – including Continental, Northwest, Air Canada, and Thai Airways, during his 24-year career in the airline industry.

Matt attended the University College London’s Bartlett School of Urban Planning and is a graduate of Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Matt is President of Visit San Francisco and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Governors of the World Centre San Francisco, President of the San Francisco
African American Chamber of Commerce, and serves on the advisory board of the Presidio World College.

Peter Needham
Managing Editor – Australasia

Global Travel Media’s Managing Editor, Peter Needham, has long been considered one of Australasia’s foremost tourism writers and columnists. Over the past 20 years, Peter has written for many major publications in Australia and Asia, both consumer and trade, including weekend newspaper travel supplements, magazines, dedicated travel titles, and websites.

Peter’s background includes seven years as Editor of Inside Tourism – at the time, Australia’s only weekly travel industry publication, and other editorial roles with Traveltrade (Australia), Australian Associated Press (Sydney Bureau), Reuters(UK), and the Los Angeles Times / Washington Post News Service (European Bureau, London). Peter was also a reporter for The Guardian (London).

Ian McIntosh
Contributing Editor

Journalist and publisher Ian Mcintosh has spent a lifetime exploring the globe. His national full-colour travel trade publication, Travelnews Australia, won a prestigious national Telstra Business Award. Now retired, Ian is still an avid traveller. His most recent exploit was hanging on for dear life as an elephant called Bo took him for a ride in Thailand – straight into a pond of murky water.  Special interests include small ship cruising and good value hotels in Europe.

John Savage
Senior Journalist

In a Media and Public Relations career spanning more than 35 years, Savage has worked as both a journalist and communications specialist. He started his media career as a general news and feature writer for national state and regional media including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Sydney Morning Herald, Cumberland Newspaper Group, and Australian Associated Press.

He also worked as an on-air presenter for Channels 9 and 10 and as a reporter, presenter, and producer for radio stations, 2UE, 2UW, 2WS the ABC, and all their affiliated networks. Savage is a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and a member of the Australian Society of Travel Writers. Although still enjoying the ever-increasing challenges of travel “spin” the return to a travel writing role ads another dimension to his lifestyle. Savage has been a recipient of many Public Relations, Marketing, and Tourism Awards during his career.

John Alwyn-Jones
Cruise Editor, Producer, and Presenter of GTMTV on location 

John Alwyn-Jones is one of Australia and the region’s most recognised and well-known travel industry personalities and travel journalists and he is also a cruise specialist, now re-joining Global Travel Media as cruise editor and undertaking other editorial and partnership activities.

John has a long track record in the industry including working in the UK with Wales Tourist Board and the National Trust, with the Wales Tourist Board/British Tourist Authority in the USA and Australia, and he also worked in management consulting with Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, KPMG and also his own business, in addition to a number of senior roles including with Tourism New South Wales.

He has been in the world of media, journalism, and broadcasting for the last ten years or so and is well known for being “The Mole” when he ran Travel Mole in this region, then joining eTravel Blackboard, Global Travel Media, followed by a short time back at eTravel Blackboard, before rejoining Global Travel Media as Cruise Editor, Correspondent, Producer and Presenter of GTMTV on location and other initiatives, including from time to time providing his sometimes controversial views on the industry!

Jill Walsh
Business Tourism Editor

Global Travel Media’s Business Tourism Editor, Jill Walsh, first began her career in journalism in Perth, W.A. in the early 1990s.

Now based in Melbourne, Jill has written articles for a number of business tourism titles, lifestyle and leisure magazines, and Sunday newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Jill covers business tourism for the interactive news service in Australia and abroad, where she often attends the world’s leading trade shows on behalf of the team.

Richard Coles
Training Insights Contributor

Richard (Rick) has a truly international background. Born in Toronto, Canada, he was raised in Chicago, and London, and subsequently has lived and worked in 8 countries. After some years in Europe, The Gulf, and Asia, he now lives in Brisbane, Australia, and works worldwide.

Richard’s career has been valuably varied. He has served with Qantas, KLM, Dubai Petroleum Company, and Emirates.

He incorporates his valuable background into writing and training on Leadership, Sales, and Customer service subjects. He brings innovative and creative ideas to his training that engage his audiences. He has delivered hundreds of presentations in over 55 countries.

Richard develops timely analogies and ‘themes’ for writing and training, that his readers and participants connect with quickly and use to accelerate and enhance their learning. Familiar with all media, he appears on radio and TV shows around world talking about leadership and customer issues. He looks forward to making regular contributions to Global Travel Media.

Grahame Cox
Contributing Editor

Grahame enjoys a successful track record in business communications…as a writer and public relations practitioner across the travel & hospitality and corporate sectors in Australia and SE Asia.

Grahame’s editorial experience in the travel and hospitality sectors includes journalism for newspapers, magazines, online publications including Global Travel Media, and travel itinerary site, Bindutrips.

It also includes news and marketing content for major Thai hotel and resorts, social media writing for Cambodia hotels, advertising copywriting and marketing content for hotel and restaurant websites in Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand; advertorials, news releases, feature articles, case studies/testimonials and brand strategies for retail and wholesale travel operators.

Grahame works to clear objectives, set budgets, and agreed strategies on assignments small, large or unique building brand value or changing attitudes.

His career highlights include chief writer at Savage Communications;  the Australian Director of Bite Communications; director and co-principal of Upstream Australia; director and co-principal of MACRO Communications Australia, Singapore and Indonesia. He is a graduate of the University of Canberra and the University of Technology Sydney.

Reinhard Hohler
Contributing Editor South East Asia

Reinhard Hohler from Germany has travel in his blood. If not on tours, he finds time to write about his travel adventures and tour experiences. Based in Chiang Mai, he also covers tourism-related news for Chiang Mai Post, Chiang Mai Mail, ASEAN Today, and some other online travel services.

Since 2002, he intensively writes about the tourism developments in the Greater Mekong-Subregion (GMS), comprising China, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Sometimes, he even ventures into Island Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.

Andrew Wood
Contributing Editor – Thailand

Andrew J Wood (53) has been at the forefront of Thai Tourism since his arrival in the Kingdom in the early 1990′s. Andrew has been linked with many of Thailand’s finest hotels including the famed Shangri-La and the Royal Cliff Beach Resort.

A passionate hotelier and a Skalleague. Andrew is currently President, Skal International Thailand, and is an enthusiastic environmental advocate for green policies in tourism and an avid writer in his spare time.

Earth Saiswang
Social and Hospitality Editor

Earth Saiswang, joins Global Travel Media as the Social and Hospitality Editor, based in Bangkok, Thailand.

Earth Saiswang, brings over 25 years of experience in hotels, public relations with some of Bangkok’s prestigious hotels, Central Hotels & Resorts (Currently Centara Hotels & Resorts), Holiday Inn, Crown Plaza, and Grand Sukhumvit Sofitel and is the current President of the Hotel Public Relations Association of Thailand. Earth Saiswang is also a TV Host for the Bangkok Society (on the Bangkok city Channel).

Based in Bangkok, Earth has written articles for numerous, lifestyle and leisure magazines in the region.

Earth Saiswang covers social events and hospitality for many high-end magazines.

Rachel Packford

‘Born into a family of Entrepreneurs, with parents from Singapore and UK, Rachel is extremely motivated and passionate about every project which she embarks on, no matter what the task.

Rachel is an established Actor who has played in major international films like Harry Potter (+ many others) as well as performing in Lead roles on the Stage in London. Outside of Acting, Rachel has proven an excellent Event Manager for EVENTWORLD, and is also ‘loaned’ to other companies, such is her fast growing reputation in the MICE & Luxury travel markets.

Rachel loves writing (Honours Degree from University and has had three sketches performed at the Soho Theatre London) and so this passion, along with her experience in the events industry, has brought her into writing Travel reviews in Europe where the hotels/Tourist Boards have been extremely pleased with what has been written, and the style in which it is written’.

Looking forward to working with you in the future.

Roderick Eime

Roderick Eime is a professional journalist, photographer and travel writer with a career spanning four decades.

His work in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector sees his work published in dozens of magazines, newspapers and websites around the world.

He is a four-time winner for both writing and photography in the Australian Society of Travel Writers Journalism Awards for Excellence as well as a PATA Destination Gold Award.

Robert La Bua
Luxury Travel Editor

Having more than 1000 articles published in magazines and newspapers all over the world, including his own travel magazine, Robert La Bua is one of Australia’s most accomplished travel writers. A former Sky News Business Channel guest expert on luxury travel, Robert specialises in luxury and destinations and experiences for high net worth and ultrahigh net worth individuals.

 He brings a vast body of knowledge and expertise to Global Travel Media as the writer of the Global Traveller Deluxe section, where readers can find reviews and articles about exceptional destinations, experiences, flights, and hotels of interest to the sophisticated traveller.

Mark William Sheehan

Mark is the author of the best-selling “Know BEFORE You GO Guides” titled America Over Easy!   Now in its’ fifth re-print with New Holland Publishing.

Mark has written travel guides for professional Tour Directors and free-lanced with over 100

newspapers and magazines worldwide.  Alongside iconic names as Richard Branson & Ted Turner Mark has helped establish such brands in the Travel Industry as V Australia, Trafalgar USA, Insight, TrekAmerica, and Destination America for The Travel Corporation.

He is a certified “American Specialist” living between a home in the USA and Sydney, Australia.

Mark is a founding-Director of www.travmedia.com with Nick Wayland

Mark’s post 9-11 non-profit, non-political group The America First Campaign, is credited alongside ATI with re-igniting travel to the USA after ‘certifying’ over 8,000 travel professionals in 11 countries.