30 Under 30: Meet Ellie Fowler

There aren’t many people that can say they launched a successful business venture aged 23, but Ellie Fowler is one such person. She opened The Travel Business, a high-street travel agency based in Newport, South Wales, four years ago and has since grown annual turnover from £200,000 to £1 million in the space of just two years.

How? “There’s not a marketing strategy I don’t think I’ve tried,” the now-27-year-old laughs. “Some of them work, some of them don’t!”

Ellie puts the majority of the agency’s success down to word of mouth, social media and a lot of hard work. Unusually, she cites LinkedIn as the most successful platform for her, having grown her following to 20,000.

“People trust me on there, maybe because it’s a more serious platform, and they come to me for both business and personal travel,” she says, adding that group bookings were also a large contributor to the agency’s growth.

KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY

Launching The Travel Business seemed inevitable for Ellie since her parents have been in the industry her whole lifetime, owning a travel agency together until 15 years ago when her father took it on solo.

Although Ellie did a degree in teaching, she says she knew she “needed” to run a travel business: “I have a passion for business and a passion for travel so [opening an agency] was a no-brainer.”