The CEO of B2B travel trade magazine TTG Daniel Pearce says transparency and “leading from among the team” are his two most important leadership tips.
Pearce joined TTG as editor in 2010 before leading a management buyout from UBM and becoming managing director in 2013. He became CEO in 2018. In 2025, the magazine announced it was closing in print after 72 years, with Pearce adding the business is on a “clear growth path” with plans for its registration wall and events.
TTG has been profitable for throughout the last 12 years with the exception of pandemic-impacted 2020 and 2021, when the travel market collapsed.
What’s been a big turning point/breakthrough moment for you?
Finding our purpose as an independent media business back in 2019, 66 years after the first edition of the Travel Trade Gazette, was a big step for us, and for me personally. We used the work of American motivational speaker Simon Sinek as well as extensive research and internal consultation to arrive at our business purpose: to promote Smarter, Better, Fairer travel. It led directly to TTG Media applying for, and attaining, certified B-Corp status in 2023.
Another turning point came in September 2021 when we hosted our first major event after Covid, the brand-new Travel Industry Awards at Magazine London. It was such a privilege to bring the industry back together for the first time with a major new event hosted by Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daly. We weren’t just surviving we were getting back to growth.
What’s currently keeping you up at night?
I wouldn’t say anything keeps me awake at night – that said, being wedded to the travel industry means that we are never far away from a set of brutal facts.
The biggest challenge this year has been the difficulties caused to our market by the Iran War, which is playing havoc with travel booking patterns, and hitting consumer confidence and the general willingness to book holidays. Of course, all of that has a knock-on effect on our partners’ willingness to book trade marketing, however compelling the TTG offer is, and we’ve been forced to restructure the team this year.
A more predictable answer would be the challenges posed by AI, but I think we’re evolving well with it so far.
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Being present for the TTG Media team and enabling them in every way I can. Running the business efficiently, finding new ways to support our market and striding purposefully towards the future, rather than running away from it.
How are things going right now, what’s working?
We are midway through a major transformation for the business, which in some senses is the biggest the TTG brand has gone through since its inception in 1953. Closing TTG and TTG Luxury in print last November was something that we really wrestled with, although we knew that stepping back from print would allow us to put more energy and resource into our considerable digital and event streams, and growing our audience.
The key to this transformation has been the launch of Black Book – a new kind of event from us at the Business Design Centre in October, featuring curated 121 meetings between 100 partners and 150 travel advisors, conference streams and an awards event. The event has been extremely well supported and we can’t wait to deliver it.
What has been your proudest achievement?
I joined TTG as editor in 2010, before taking over the business in 2013. I’ve been proud to see some incredible individuals develop with the business both professionally and personally, and in a sense literally growing up with TTG.
More specifically, bringing together some of the team old and new – including six former editors – together with our partners and audience, at the Royal Geographical Society in 2023 to celebrate 70 years of our trusted brand, was a memorable moment.
In my past life it was probably the award-winning Proud of Pubs campaign at The Publican, where I was managing editor before moving into travel.
Biggest mistake, and what did you learn from it?
Not focusing aggressively enough on growth in the early years of TTG Media from 2013. Looking back, I was just happy to be running the business but I should have been more ambitious.
When it comes to leading a team and motivating others, what works for you?
Transparency. Leading from among the team rather than from a glass box. Learning from them and aiming to continue to improve. I know communication across the business could still be better.
If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what is it?
Move faster. Break more things. Make your kids prouder of you.
Who or what inspires you and why?
My team laugh at me as they know I took a lot of inspiration from Winston Churchill during Covid, when I was reading multiple biographies of him at the same time. Bringing out a lot of wartime analogies in our team communications during that time may have been a bit much, on reflection…
Also Charlie Chaplin. With TTG based in SE1 I could point to half a dozen places not far from the office where he used to hang out at the turn of the last century – what more inspiration to dream big do you need than the local boy that became the biggest star the world has ever seen?
Closer to home, the commitment to the cause of all of our team at TTG continues to take my breath away, particularly managing director Matt Roclawski, content & audience director Pippa Jacks and editor-in-chief Sophie Griffiths, currently on maternity leave. Our shared responsibility has been a driving force behind TTG’s progress and success for many years.
What is your work mantra?
Done is better than perfect. In a fast-moving independent media business, with limited resources, you have to commit to being brilliant without spending too long on everything you do.
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