This month sees Steve Reed Tourism (SRT) celebrate two decades in the group travel industry – with its founders, Steve and Judith (pictured here), now widely recognised as experts in the art of bringing buyers and sellers together.

Launched in winter 1999, SRT quickly established a penchant for UK coach tourism and group travel. ”We did this in conjunction with some wonderful people who really helped establish our business,” says Steve, who’s the Champion of GTW magazine’s sister organisation Travel World Association (https://travelworldassociation.com/).

“At the end of the day what do all tourism businesses have in common? They all want new customers, so the act of putting sellers together with buyers became our driving force, almost from day one. And while you’re at it, why not generate groups of these customers…?”

In the early days, the world famous Blacksmith’s Shop in Gretna Green – for long the UK’s busiest coach stop – was a real eye-opener for Steve: “I’d never seen so many coaches coming and going. We loved promoting that area with local guru Lynda Denton, and of course its iconic wedding themed attraction. My older sister Patricia eloped from the north east when she was 16 and was married there over the anvil at Gretna Green in the 1960s, unknown to my parents!”

Plans are afoot for a special 20 anniversary Steve Reed Tourism event in early 2020. Watch this space…  and visit https://www.stevereedtourism.co.uk/ for more on Steve’s 2020 line up of events.