Thomas Cook's Chris Mottershead named president of the ITT

Mottershead, who is chief of product and operations at Cook, replaces Trevor Harding, who is standing down after 16 years at the helm.

In an emotional speech at the ITT Conference in Split, Harding told delegates: “It has been an honour and an absolute privilege to be president.

“I’m 77 this year and I think it’s time I hung up my boots. I’ve had a wonderful career – 30 years as a publisher, 10 with TTG and 30 years with Travel Weekly. I was very lucky – I lived the life of a king and ITT continued to let me keep that relationship with the industry.”

Harding thanked ITT chairman Steven Freudmann, as well as the Dellar Davies team and his wife, Gloria, without whom he said, his achievements “wouldn’t have been possible”.

“ITT is very very special,” he added. “It does a lot of good work, but it’s about the people, and our industry is about people and we have some lovely people in it.”

Taking on the mantle as new ITT president, Mottershead described it as a “wonderful opportunity”.

“I have been in this industry 30 years and I absolutely love this industry so to be given this opportunity is just wonderful,” he said.

Mottershead also praised ITT for encouraging new talent into the sector.

“I have always believed we have to embrace change and bring new talent into this industry,” he said.

“I’d like to thank Trevor for all his hard work," he added. "I’m absolutely thrilled to be coming into the new role of president.”