The move sees TourHound’s managing director and former Wendy Wu UK boss, Laurence Hicks, become chairman.
Conlon’s joining allows TourHound to secure a “substantial investment”, enabling the company to accelerate its growth plans.
At Cruise.co.uk, Conlon grew turnover from £15 million to more than £200 million and successfully completed four private equity buyouts.
He had already stepped down from his chief executive position at the cruise specialist OTA earlier in the year, but he continues to be an active shareholder.
Hicks, who will retain an active day-to-day role in the business, said: “We are delighted to have Seamus onboard and welcome the skills, experience and high level of expertise he will bring to the business.
“Seamus investing and joining our business is a testament to the solid foundation the team at TourHound has built in the last two years.”
Conlon added: “I am excited to be able to join and invest in Tourhound, as it seeks to revolutionise the fastest growing sector in travel. Laurence and the team have, in a very short period of time, built a sizeable aggregation platform for the adventure and touring sector and I look forward to playing my part in the future journey.”
TourHound provides content from more than 60 touring and adventure suppliers on its proprietary platform and offers white-label platforms for The Advantage Travel Partnership, Barrhead Travel and Dawson & Sanderson among other retail agencies and homeworking companies.
As a result of the investment, TourHound will look to “revitalise” both its consumer and agent platforms over the coming months – introducing new tools and substantially increase the volume and variety of tours across the platform.
TourHound aggregates tour content, pricing and availability from its tour operating partners using live API feeds.
It was established in 2017 by Hicks, Rhodri Evans, former managing director and founder of Tigerbay and Jo Smethurst, previously head of product at Caribtours.
