“Holidaysplease wouldn’t have been born without Travel Counsellors – they’ve been a driving force for us to be better,” Dixon told TTG after the deal, for an undisclosed sum, was announced on Monday (13 March) – Travel Counsellors’ first acquisition in its near 30-year history.

Dixon, who co-founded the Birmingham-headquartered company in 2002, said it was “the right time for new owners to take things forward in the way we’d want them to”, expressing his deep admiration for Holidaysplease’s new parent.

"[Travel Counsellors founder] David Speakman was the inspiration for us when we thought, ‘how are we going to take this little online agency forward?’ when we started in 2002," said Dixon.

"Looking at what David had done was our inspiration for building a homeworking team. It’s always been a company we’ve looked up to and benchmarked ourselves against. They’ve been a driving force for us to be better, so to end up within their community and within their family – I feel very proud.”

Dixon said he and fellow Holidaysplease directors Charles Duncombe, Sonia Dixon and John McEwan had been approached over potential sales pre-pandemic but never considered it to be the right time.

“We’d been approached before but still had plans to drive the business forward, whereas post-pandemic, there’s a great opportunity on the table for us and it’s now time to properly think about it. That led us to making the decision,” he said, confirming Holidaysplease’s current leadership would be staying with the business “for a good time yet”.

“For every business that was affected by Covid, some didn’t make it through, and for a lot of us it was very, very tough and there were moments for all of us where we felt our life’s work and businesses we had put everything into could be taken away without it being our fault and out of our control – that gets you thinking about the future and how you want to see your future pan out as a business owner and it makes you think.”

“It was slightly risky to keep investing and keep pushing but it meant we came out [of the pandemic] really strongly,” said Dixon, adding how conversations with Travel Counsellors began last autumn, with an agreement reached “relatively quickly”.

Echoing comments by Travel Counsellors’ chief executive Steve Byrne, Dixon highlighted the synergies between the companies and its focuses “on our people and our customers” 

“When we did get approaches and we were starting to explore options, it was clear to us those were the two most important things,” he said. “If we were going to sell, then we wanted it to go to someone with the same shared ethos and values. By a fair chalk of distance, Travel Counsellors were the choice that came first to our mind - we are very aligned.”

Dixon admitted that announcing the news to Holidaysplease’s agents and head office staff had been “emotional” with “happy and sad tears”, adding that reaction to the deal from across the business “had been very positive”.

“We think it’ll be even more so when our team hear more about the plans Travel Counsellors has and the opportunities that will be there for everyone,” said Dixon. “Taking the business forward with new owners with big boots and great resources. I’m excited and I’m sure we’ll see positive growth and it’s exciting to being part of helping them achieve their growth targets.”