Travelzoo shakes up top executive roster, puts a Brit in as CEO

Deals publisher Travelzoo is to carry out a major shake up at the top of the business next year with current European vice president Chris Loughlin taking over as chief executive.

Loughlin will replace Holger Bartel who is moving to become chairman of the company. Current chairman and brother Ralph Bartel will step down and move to a board director position.

The transfer of power will take place on 1 July 2010 in what Travelzoo is calling a “proactive and transparent” succession plan.

The publicly listed company has expanded rapidly in recent years, driven in part by Loughlin in the London office where he has spearheaded Travelzoo’s operations outside of North America.

Alongside growing the core deals publishing business, Travelzoo launched fly.com, a flight metasearch engine, earlier this year in the US and more recently in the UK.

Travelzoo recently hived off its Asia-Pacific division in a deal between the two Bartel brothers.

Wall Street-listed Travelzoo shares have rolled around in the sub-$20 level for over two years. Its happiest period on the public markets was in late-2004/early-2005 when it share price reach the the $80-$100 mark.

Loughlin says he and Holger Bartel have different styles and experience (Loughlin having managed the European expansion programme while Bartel ran the company at a corporate level), but continuing the existing roadmap will remain a key element of his tenure.

“The challenge is not to introduce new products but improve on the execution of our current strategy,” Loughlin tells Tnooz.

However, Loughlin says long-awaited improvements to the Travelzoo website will become a reality soon.

He explains: “Now that the expansion phase is complete in the core markets, we can focus on an initiative to improve the look and feel of the websites.”