Southall Travel to launch student and sports divisions
Southall Travel has unveiled plans to launch dedicated student travel and sports travel businesses.
Speaking at a Barclays Travel Forum in London on Wednesday, the company’s owner and managing director Kuljinder Bahia said the student travel brand would be launched within three months.
He said it was ‘all ready to go’ but the group was struggling to find a good domain name.
The sports division will be launched soon afterwards and already has a name – ST Sports – he added.
Bahia said Southall Travel was also looking to introduce a short-haul programme which would include Turkey.
Longer term it was looking at expanding overseas, but Bahia admitted this would probably only happen in a period when UK growth was slowing.
Meanwhile the company, which turned over £600 million last year, is moving from its head office in Buckinghamshire to central London in June.
Bahia said the Dover Street office would help the firm attract good talent and would also make the team more productive in terms of meeting with clients and suppliers.
It would also be helpful for the company’s corporate travel operations, he said.
Paul Wait, currently chief executive of the GTMC, is joining Southall Travel Group in September as chief operating officer.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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