TVTRAVEL Shop guru Harry Goodman was proving that he has well and truly bounced back from his personal crisis of the early 1990s when he held court in a London restaurant.
The former chairman of International Leisure Group, which collapsed in 1991, was the subject for one of our “Lunch with Travel Weekly” features and talked enthusiastically about the continued success of the TVTravel Shop.
Goodman was like a man with a new toy, admitting that the venture had given him a new buzz.
The entrepreneur may have left the heady days of the 1980s behind him, but he was also more than happy to talk about his days leading the second-biggest tour operator.
Goodman said he was proud of his achievements and ILG would not have collapsed had it not been for the Gulf War, which had hit business overnight.
He expressed sympathy for those who had been affected by the crash, but added that he had also suffered greatly. “The other side of the coin is those hoteliers who kept my deposits,” he said.
“A hotelier came up to me the other day and said thanks Harry, I kept ú1m of yours and bought a hotel.”
n Read the full interview with Goodman in Travel Weekly on April 12.