Questex Hospitality + Travel Group Promotes Industry Veterans to Division Leadership Positions

NEW YORK, Jan. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Questex Hospitality + Travel Group is pleased to announce the promotions of John McMahon to Executive Vice President, Questex Hospitality + Travel division and Marilyn McHugh to Vice President, global events for the Hospitality + Travel group.

Effective immediately, McMahon assumes responsibility for the Questex portfolio of eMedia and eLearning products serving the hospitality and travel sector including HotelManagement.net, TravelAgentCentral.com, MeetingsReview.com, the International Meetings Review Network, Travel Agent University as well as the group's Travel Agent, Luxury Travel Advisor and Hotel Management magazines.

McHugh's responsibility includes the company's worldwide portfolio of Hotel Investment, Hotel Management, Luxury Travel and Incentive Travel events, including the IHIF series, Luxury Travel series, Incentive Travel Exchange series and HOTEC Americas series.

"John and Marilyn have an exceptionally strong level of experience in hospitality and travel industry marketing, media and events.  We are proud to recognize their accomplishments with these well-deserved promotions," stated Kerry Gumas, President and CEO of Questex.  "Each has had a distinguished career and we are pleased to be in the position to have two such accomplished executives leading this division."

McMahon has more than 20 years of industry experience in management and sales.  He has been the driving force for many successful products and event launches throughout his travel media career including Luxury Travel Advisor and Luxury Hotelier magazine as well as Luxury Travel Expo, HotelWorld Expo & Conference and Incentive Travel Exchange.  He has also led the group's eMedia development and sales initiatives developing the company's eLearning and loyalty programs into a blockbuster business.  Prior to joining Questex Media, John spent 10 years at Reed Travel Group and also served as Publisher of the Official Hotel Guide and the OAG Business products.

McHugh brings more than a quarter century of hospitality experience to her position, having earlier served Wyndham Worldwide and its predecessors, Cendant Corporation and Hospitality Franchise Systems, for 18 years in key corporate and brand marketing roles. As Wyndham Hotel Group's Vice President of B2B Marketing & Communications, she created a global business-to-business marketing plan and established long-term sales strategies for the company's 12 lodging brands.  She also supervised the Global Sales team and managed trade shows and sales operations, training and communications. Among her accomplishments there, McHugh developed and launched an online directory for meeting planners, championed a social media marketing campaign for travel management companies, implemented an online specialist program for travel agents and led automation of the request-for-proposal process.

About Questex Hospitality + Travel:

Questex Hospitality + Travel, the largest multimedia organization in the world dedicated to travel and lodging, drives revenue, productivity and value creation for these related industries through strategic investment and deal-making forums, powerful lead-generation tools, interactive online business solutions, world-class events and industry-leading publications.

Questex Hospitality + Travel serves travel marketers globally through its TravelAgentCentral.com, LuxuryTravelAdvisor.com, TravelAgentUniversity Online portals.  It operates the leading luxury travel booking site, FiveStarAlliance.com, publishes Travel Agent and Luxury Travel Advisor magazines and produces Luxury Travel Expo, Global Meeting & Incentive Travel Exchanges and CONFEC conferences.

Questex Hospitality + Travel also provides business development, marketing and training services to NTOs/DMAs, hotel, gaming, resort and cruise companies, OTAs and travel agents worldwide.  Questex Hospitality + Travel is a division of Questex Media Group LLC, headquartered in Newton, Mass., with offices throughout the world.

SOURCE Questex Hospitality + Travel