TravelWorld lures Going Places man for top role

Travelworld, the travel agency chain owned by Airtours, has poached Going Places senior commercial manager Martin Andrew to be its top marketer.

Andrew takes up his new position as head of commercial and marketing next week, and will report to Travelworld managing director Trevor Davis.

Andrew will be responsible for the company’s advertising and will work closely with Davis on business development. Davis headed Travelworld’s marketing department, before being promoted to managing director.

Andrew joins the 123-strong Travelworld chain a year after Airtours bought it for &£13m.

Travelworld contributed &£500,000 of the &£156.5m pre-tax profit reported by the Airtours group last week, for the year ending September 30 1999.

Airtours also owns Going Places, 350 Advantage Travel Centres franchises and the tour operators Cresta, Bridge Travel and Direct Holidays.

It recently bid &£950m for travel company First Choice Holidays, but the deal was overturned by the European Commission on competition grounds.

Travelworld has just bought five branches of Top Travel, after it called in the receiver. The outlets are being rebranded as Travelworld.

Conrad Advertising works on Travelworld’s advertising and media accounts.