Background For the past 2 years, our experienced team were responsible for creating and operating the website TourHound.co.uk which features product from over 70 worldwide touring and adventure suppliers. The TourHound website aggregates all the participating supplier’s tours and then transfers potential customers to the supplier’s website to make the booking. Predominantly operating in the UK, Tourhound quickly grew, and sales in excess of £4m in touring and adventure holiday revenue has been generated by the website since it was launched. Additionally, all of the TourHound supplier’s tours are incorporated into the websites of a substantial number of UK travel agencies and travel consortia using its white label and API technology. Over a thousand travel agents now have access to TourHound content for researching and sourcing touring and adventure holidays.
TourHub With the experience and insight gained from developing TourHound, the team decided that the time was right for a more advanced and sophisticated website to be built and launched, making research and sourcing touring and adventure product much easier, through greater use of imagery, and where booking a holiday seamlessly once sourced should also be available. Hence, TourHub.co was created with the ambition to be a global touring and adventure market place and community, bringing together an even greater choice of product with hundreds of thousands of holiday experiences from around the globe from a multitude of holiday providers ranging from the well-known popular specialist suppliers, to the local, niche and sometimes undiscovered providers of product that one would find difficult to source. A key aim is for TourHub to bring together touring and adventure travellers, operators, suppliers, journalists and travel enthusiasts from around the world to share and communicate their experiences with each other through reviews, blogs and social media in one place. TourHub aims to bring the consumer an unrivalled supply of product and information from the touring and adventure world and become the “go-too” resource when seeking that perfect touring and adventure holiday experience.
Laurence Hicks (Chairman)
Laurence’s wealth of experience in operations, sales, distribution, marketing, and more recently executive management in various sectors of the market, including aviation, ski, city break, mainstream, niche cruising and long-haul touring has equipped him with a vast knowledge on many aspects of the industry. Laurence’s recent role in driving the huge international success of Wendy Wu Tours, the leading China & S.E Asia touring specialist is testament to his thorough understanding and knowledge of the adventure touring market. His enthusiasm for this market inspired him to bring together a fantastic team to create TourHub.
Seamus (James) Conlon (Chief Executive Officer)
Following a successful career in the travel industry involving high profile management roles at Airtours which in the early 2000’s was the UK’s 2nd biggest tour operator and the innovative TV Travel Shop now subsumed into Expedia Group, Seamus launched and successfully developed Cruise.co.uk, recognised as one of the UK’s leading specialist cruise businesses. Seamus successfully sealed a £52m private equity deal after pioneering innovative social media communities and forums from which cruise and tour extension product in excess of £210m was sold. Seamus’s experience in the online and digital space is instrumental as TourHub evolves into an exciting and innovative touring and adventure market place and community.
Rhodri Evans (Technical Director)
Rhod has over 20 years’ experience in travel technology and has developed systems and websites for well over 100 tour operators. He was the architect of the successful ‘Travelink’ reservation system that was acquired by Comtec in 2006. During his time with Travelink Rhod developed systems for blue chip businesses like TUI and Thomas Cook. In 2008 Rhod founded TigerBay systems that developed the first ever travel specific Content Management System which now powers over 40 websites. Under Rhod’s guidance the CMS evolved into a web-geared state of the art back-end reservation system that has now been adopted by over 40 well known Tour Operators. TigerBay was acquired by Atcore in 2016.
Jo Smethurst (Commercial Director)
Jo has worked in the travel industry for over 24 years and has held senior management positions in retail and tour operating. Her experience has touched every element of a travel organisation including Sales, Operations, Product and Commercial. In 2012 after successfully implementing Caribtours first ever reservations and back office system, Jo qualified as a project manager and became a consultant offering project management and consultancy to the industry. Her clients have included Carrier, Audley Travel, Belle France and the Alan Rogers Travel Group. She loves working in this ever evolving industry and brings a wealth of operational experience to the TourHub team.