Pioneer of low-cost package holidays
Harry Goodman Tour and airline operator BORN NOVEMBER 12, 1938 - DIED MARCH 12, 2018, AGED 79
HARRY Goodman rose from nothing to build International Leisure Group, the UK’s secondlargest tour operator behind Thomson Holidays in the 1980s.
He pioneered the budget package holiday through his company Intasun, which expanded to become International Leisure Group, and made overseas travel a reality for many who previously couldn’t afford it. He also launched low-cost airline Air Europe before Ryanair and easyJet became household names.
With big success came big rewards. Goodman embraced his playboy lifestyle, driving a RollsRoyce convertible and hosting parties on his private yacht. Not even a spell in rehab for cocaine addiction could dampen his thirst for business; while he was there he bought tour operator Club 18-30.
But in 1991 ILG went bust, owing £500million. Goodman wasn’t the type of man to stay down for long though, and in 1998 he launched TV Travel Shop, selling holidays through cable TV. He made £60million when he sold it four years later.
Born into poverty in the East End of London, Goodman was the son of Rebecca Aaronovitch but never knew his biological father. When his mother married Charles Goodman, Harry took his surname. The couple had two more sons but when Rebecca died and Charles abandoned his family, Harry went to live with an aunt and the younger boys went to an orphanage.
After a spell working in a travel agency he set up on his own in the early 1960s with tour operator Sunair, selling holidays door-todoor. By 1972 Sunair had folded, unable to keep up with competition from Clarksons, the first of the big cheap package holiday companies.
Goodman bounced back the following year with Intasun which became ILG, and launched Air Europe in 1979. ILG was floated on the stock exchange in 1981 and was turning over almost a £1billion before its demise. For all his ups and downs Goodman remained philosophical. “There’s no magic formula, no shortcuts to making a business work.
“It’s hard work and there’s a price to be paid,” he said in 2005.
He died of a heart attack while on holiday in Tenerife with his third wife Yvonne, who survives him as do three children from his previous marriages.