TUI Travel marketing to be headed by managing director

TUI Travel lead marketer and chief customer officer Tim Williamson is to leave the travel company following a boardroom shake up.

His departure follows the previously announced departure of UK managing director and board director Dermot Blastland. Blastland’s replacement, Johan Lundgren, is now going to directly head up the marketing function supported by head of marketing Jeremy Ellis.

The company recently warned that it had not shifted all its summer stock and expected capacity to be flat next year.

The warning drove down TUI’s share price but the stock has since risen as parent company TUI AG is weighing up whether to buy the shares it does not currently own.

Williamson was elevated from marketing director to a board level role as customer director in 2008
Williamson told Marketing Week he felt that he had accomplished a great deal in his customer director role with customer satisfaction levels at a record high.

He says: “I’m particularly proud of the way we have brought the customer into the heart of TUI UK.”

Williamson is looking at other roles both within and outside TUI Travel.

Also leaving Tui Travel UK, following a review by Lundgren, are strategic planning director Neil Morris and IT director Keith Newman.

TUI Travel owns the Thomson Holidays and First Choice brands and the company as formed by the merger of First Choice and parent company TUI in 2007.

The holiday industry has come under pressure due to the recession and rising costs. Several smaller operators have gone out of business in recent weeks.