Goodman exits TV Travel

FLAMBOYANT entrepreneur Harry Goodman has spectacularly parted company with TV Travel Shop, the firm he founded five years ago.

His departure as chief executive is the latest twist in a long career that has seen spectacular failures, huge windfalls and private scandals.

Goodman, 64, and managing director Seamus Conlon are being replaced by Dermot Halpin, managing director of online travel business Expedia UK. Both Expedia and TV Travel Shop are owned by US media group, InterActiveCorp.

Goodman and his co-founders set up TV Travel Shop in 1998 and sold it to the Americans last year for £70 million - he received £4 million. The company runs two cable TV channels selling holidays direct over the internet or by phone.

The sale was seen as a partial comeback for Goodman, who set up his first company, Sun Air, in 1962 at the age of 23.

He soon sold out to Cunard, but returned in 1972 with International Leisure Group, which owned the Intasun travel agency, and set up low-cost airline, Air Europe.

But ILG was shattered by the collapse in tourism during the 1991 Gulf war and went bust with debts of £500 million.

Goodman was once famous for his playboy lifestyle and had a penchant for cocaine. He become a reformed character and is reported to have given large sums to drugs charities.