Involved Holidays' Richard Forde: ‘We need agents to distribute our product'
Forde's plans include new branding, more social media and – for the first time – a trade push. 'We need agents to promote and distribute us. The plan is to get the name out there – and the message that we are not just a walking tour operator, we offer holidays – with walks,' he says.
While Forde admits Involved's trade business is currently 'minimal', he's confident about the opportunity. 'I would like 10% this year and 25% next year – we think there is a gap in the market.
'Agents have the national network and they are known in their local community, so we need them to promote and distribute. I told Steve there was a massive opportunity with agents because he has such a good product [to offer].' Some agents will get a chance to sample it towards the end of the year, with plans for a fam trip to Cyprus being finalised.
New products
Forde also plans to expand Involved's portfolio, with Gran Canaria, Albania and a twin-centre Majorca/Menorca itinerary in the pipeline. Another initiative is Trails and Rails, combining a fly-rail itinerary with hiking. The first will be in Catalonia, with another planned in Portugal.
'We're also looking at birdwatching,' he says. 'A lot of our walks go along the coast, so there are synergies with birding.' A new 'all singing, all dancing' website is due in the autumn, with downloadable marketing material and an enhanced agents' booking portal.
May is National Walking Month, and could be the perfect springboard. If Forde has anything to do with it, more people will be putting on their hiking boots – but also taking a well-earned rest afterwards.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
26 minutes ago
- Times
10-year passport rule: is yours valid for EU travel?
One of the fastest ways to kill your pre-holiday good mood is to find out shortly before you fly — or worse, at the airport itself — that your travel documents aren't in order. However, some visitors to EU destinations are still falling foul of post-Brexit checks, because having an unexpired passport doesn't automatically mean that it will be deemed valid abroad. So what do you need to watch out for if you're planning a trip to Europe? You'll need to check that your passport is less than ten years old on arrival, and has an expiry date at least three months after the end of your stay. The only exception is if you're visiting Ireland, part of the Common Travel Area with the UK. These rules also apply to four non-EU countries — Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland — which, together with 25 of the 27 EU countries, form the Schengen Area. As Schengen nations have an open border with each other, they also share the same passport validity requirements. So if you're planning a trip to an EU country or one of the four mentioned above, here's what you need to know. EU countries require travellers from 'third countries' — anywhere outside the EU — to have a passport that's less than ten years old on the day of their entry to a member state and valid for at least three months after the end of their stay. Since the UK left the EU, this rule has applied to British passport holders. Previously the UK Passport Office allowed up to nine months remaining on an old passport to be carried over to a new one. This meant that some passports issued before October 2018 had more than ten years of validity. After Brexit, EU countries no longer recognised this extension, which is why passports now need to be less than ten years old. The only exception to this rule is Ireland. This is because Ireland is part of the Common Travel Area with the UK so the rules are slightly different. If you are travelling to multiple destinations, check that your passport and other documents cover all stops on your itinerary. For example, if you are travelling to a country where your passport needs to be valid for the duration of your stay, but you have a stopover in the EU where the above rules apply (or somewhere such as Dubai or Singapore, which require at least six months' validity remaining after arrival), then you will also need to make sure your passport meets these requirements. Speak to your travel operator if in any doubt. A valid passport is essential for travelling outside the UK. For travel to the EU and European Free Trade Association (Efta) countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), it needs to be less than ten years old when you enter the country and have at least three months left on it after you intend to leave. The only exception is if you are going to Ireland, where you can travel until your passport expires. To visit Ireland, British nationals don't actually need a passport — although airlines typically insist on it — and can use another form of official photo ID. Depending on where you are travelling to, for what purpose and for how long, you may also need to get a visa. After Brexit, British citizens are permitted to stay in the Schengen area for a maximum of 90 days out of 180 for leisure visits, after which a visa or other permit may be needed. You will need to check the specific entry requirements for each individual country you're visiting. From late 2026, you will also need to successfully apply for an Etias visa waiver before you travel. • When does the Etias scheme start for UK travellers? If you are planning to drive or hire a car, you will need to take your driving licence, and in some cases an international driving permit (IDP). Those taking their own cars across a border will also need relevant insurance and vehicle registration details, as well as a UK sticker displayed prominently on the vehicle. There may be additional requirements depending on your destination. • Driving in Europe: all the requirements and rules you need to know When travelling to EU countries, you may want to apply for and take your UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). This free benefit replaced the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) for most UK nationals after Brexit. It entitles you to medically necessary public health care, which will either be free or subsidised. In some cases, having the card with you is a requisite for ensuring your travel insurance is valid. In most cases, you will need your passport to travel to Europe. Ireland is the only exception, although the government still advises taking your passport with you, and airlines will typically insist on it. If you have lost your passport while abroad, you may be able to apply for an emergency travel document. These cost £125 and you may need to attend a British embassy in person after you have applied online. The document contains your exact itinerary, and if you decide to change your plans at the last minute you will need to pay for a new one. If your passport is damaged, you should replace it before you travel, as it may not be considered valid. HM Passport Office consider a passport damaged if any details cannot be read, there are rips, cuts, holes (including the cover) or missing pages, the cover is coming away, or there are stains such as water damage. In theory, you could travel with an expired passport between certain countries in Europe, because land borders within the Schengen Area are open and ID checks are only carried out in exceptional circumstances. For example, the Spanish government has said that its citizens may enter the country on an expired passport or ID card after its authenticity has been checked; however, a valid travel document is still required to leave the country via an external border. In the case of the UK, your passport will be checked at the relevant border controls and you will need to make sure it's valid for travel. Like most countries in the EU, Spain requires those travelling on a British passport to have at least three months remaining after the date you plan to leave. You also need to check that it is less than ten years old on arrival. • Read our full guide to Spain For Greece, the usual EU passport validity rules apply. This means it needs to be less than ten years old when you enter the country and have at least three months left after the date you plan to leave. • Read our full guide to Greece EU passport validity rules also apply in Portugal. So your passport needs to be less than ten years old when you enter the country and have at least three months remaining after the date you intend to leave. • Read our full guide to Portugal For entry into the US, your passport needs to be valid for the duration of your stay. You will also need an Esta or visa for entry. • Read our full guide to the US Turkey requires UK passport holders to have at least 150 days left on their passports after arrival. It also needs to have a full blank page for the entry and exit stamps. • Is it safe to travel to Turkey right now?
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
He wants Disney World, I want the Maldives: The couples who can't agree over holidays
Few things test a couple's patience like planning a holiday together. The old saying 'I need a holiday to recover from the holiday' hits especially hard when two very different travel styles collide. The odds of both partners wanting to do the same things, at the same pace – while having shared the booking admin and agreed on a budget – are slimmer than finding an August discount on the Riviera. Whether you're keen to catch a clifftop sunrise while your other half lounges by the pool, or you're stuck wrangling bookings while they idly browse for new swimwear, joint holidays can be... challenging. James Bore, 42, a digital security expert from Surrey, and his wife Nikki, a translator, have been married for eight years. 'We realised early on that we have very different travel styles,' he says. 'Nikki likes scheduled history tours. I prefer to wander and eat local food. In Rome, I was sick of white marble after an hour – Nikki was still dragging me around ruins on the last day.' Over time, they have learnt to compromise. 'She'll go off to look at things while I read in a café,' he says. 'Plus, her itineraries have gradually become more relaxed, which means I'm more willing to visit historic sites – though probably not white marble again.' Having autonomy on holiday is healthy, says couples counsellor Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar of Red Kite Therapy. 'You can co-create a rhythm of alternate days, split mornings and afternoons, or schedule independent time. The goal isn't the perfect itinerary,' she says. 'It's re-connecting afterwards – which is crucial.' 'I had to pay an extra £300 to rebook' But while the holiday schedule might be up for negotiation, it's often the booking process that becomes a couple's undoing – because when something goes wrong, there's only ever one person to blame. (And somehow, it's never the one who sat watching TV while their spouse wrestled with online forms and passport renewals.) 'I protest that I've been given the role of family PA,' says Sally Baker, a psychotherapist married to Arnold Dobbs, an artist. 'I asked my husband to sit with me while I booked [the] Eurostar and a hotel, but he said, 'You're fine – you do this all the time.' I was hugely busy at work and trying to book in a hurry,' she explains. 'I managed to book the train for the wrong weekend and had to pay another £300 to rebook. I just wish he'd share the responsibility more with me.' Solo bookers aren't alone. According to a survey by travel company more than half of Britons wouldn't trust their partner to plan a holiday. Women were most concerned that their other half would choose an 'undesirable location' or 'sub-standard' accommodation. Among those who had taken a couple's break, 81 per cent said the trip had been booked by the woman. 'I wouldn't ask him to book a whole holiday – I don't think he'd know where to start,' says writer Rosie Mullender of her husband. 'I can barely muster the enthusiasm to do the hours of research myself, even when I'm the one who wants to go away. I don't think he'd ever get around to it, especially when it's something he's not that keen on in the first place.' Early mornings vs lying in That's not the case for Claire Bartlett, 40, a business coaching strategist, and her husband Matthew, an insurance underwriter, also 40, from Birmingham. 'We've always had a bit of a holiday clash,' Claire admits. 'I get up early to watch the sunrise – I find it so peaceful and calming. But he'll say, 'I've had to get up for work all year; I'm lying in.' In the early days, I'd be shouting, 'Get up!' But now I just leave him to it.' Before they go away, Claire says, 'we try to agree how many days of the holiday we'll spend exploring. We head to Malta every year for some winter sun, and in summer we love going to Disney in Orlando.' That's where the problems begin. 'Matt wants full days in the parks, and by then I'm exhausted – I just want to relax. My dream holiday would be somewhere like the Maldives, pure relaxation,' she says. 'I don't like the beach, so I'd be by the pool the whole time, completely switching off.' By contrast, 'Matt's dream would be two weeks in Orlando with an absolutely packed schedule. When we were last there, there were a couple of days when I thought, 'You're pushing me too far now – I'm going to sit down.'' Thankfully, before the battle of Sleeping Beauty Castle escalated, their daughter Olivia, 10, found a solution. 'Now, Matt has someone to spend extra time on rides with, and I can head back to the pool early,' says Claire. When you're planning a holiday and know you won't want to follow the same schedule, start with open, non-judgmental conversations, says Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar. 'Each person can share their ideal day – not to convince the other, but to understand. Use statements like, 'I feel...' or 'What I need to recharge is...'' It's also helpful, she adds, to 'name your non-negotiables and your flexibility. Maybe the pool is essential for one of you, and the other needs a sunrise walk – both can happen, if they're spoken about early.' For some couples, the friction isn't about activities but accommodation standards. 'I told my husband not to unpack' 'My husband teases me every time we settle into a hotel room – he jokingly asks if it's OK to unpack,' says Lydia Berman, a brand consultant from Hemel Hempstead. 'I'm notorious for finding an issue.' Once, she recalls, 'I was heavily pregnant and the hotel gave us a room with no windows that opened. It was during a heatwave and they only had a small fan. I was melting and asked for another room. The first they gave us, someone was still sleeping in it! The second had no beds… the third had another problem, and the fourth was finally okay.' After their baby arrived, Lydia remembers a trip to Crete: 'We stayed two weeks in a room with no bath and nowhere to put a cot – despite the booking info being clear. The first room they offered had an overflowing toilet. They admitted the fault, so we ended up with an upgrade.' More recently, she says, 'we were in Mexico and the room smelled damp, which triggered my asthma. I was mortified to tell my husband not to unpack as I went to reception to complain.' Despite her success moving rooms, she admits, 'I think my husband would rather we just stayed quiet!' But differing needs like these can be managed, says couples counsellor Yasmin Shaheen-Zaffar. 'Make a plan for if you fall out – which is likely, given so many new variables,' she advises. 'How will you repair things without escalating the tension? Having a clear plan stops disagreements from spiralling, so you can both enjoy the rest of the holiday.'
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
Why a cruise is the best way to see off-the-beaten-path Japan
When I told friends I was going on a cruise in Japan, the response was mostly bemusement. 'Isn't it better to take the train?' they'd ask. It's a fair question. Japan's high-speed rail network is one of the best in the world, and the journey I'd be making – from Tokyo to Kagoshima in Kyushu, the country's most southerly island – takes just under seven hours. The cruise ship would take three days. But the point here is to travel slowly, experiencing towns and destinations off the well-trodden tourist trail, and to enjoy the ship in between. Princess Cruises' Diamond Princess was the vessel I boarded in Tokyo. Built in Japan specifically for cruises around the country, it boasts a traditional izumi Japanese baths, a high-grade sushi restaurant (where Japanese chefs carve up fresh, local fish and seafood), and even Tai Chi classes held daily on the pool deck. I arrived in Tokyo early, allowing myself time to explore this frenetic city at my own pace, wandering amongst its ultra-modern high rises and winding narrow back streets stuffed with hole-in-the-wall izakaya bars, and spending long lazy lunches at tiny ramen restaurants – where I was just one of a handful of diners seated at a counter – watching the chef working a cauldron of steaming hand-pulled noodles. On my final afternoon, I headed to Tokyo's Meiji Jingu Shrine to pull my ' omikuji ', or oracle, ahead of my voyage. These fortunes – which usually contain words of affirmation, thoughts about the world and ethical musings – come in the form of ' waka ' (traditional Japanese poems of 31 syllables), of which Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken (to whom the shrine is dedicated) were said to be prolific composers. To receive one, visitors shake a hexagonal box with a small hole until a single, numbered chopstick falls out. Each number corresponds to a numbered wooden box, and inside it is a waka, written on a thin strip of paper. It is hoped that the poem's message, based on the traditional Shinto ethics, will have particular meaning for the reader. I was pleased to see my oracle telling of success in health, wealth, love and family matters – and especially delighted when it declared that my travels would be 'pleasing'. A promising omen. The following day – waka safely tucked into my luggage – I boarded the ship and we headed for Miyazaki, Japan's warmest city. This was immediately evident in the change in the landscape: where Gingko, maple and candyfloss-pink puffballs of early cherry blossom had characterised the scene in Tokyo, here these were supplanted by palm trees, tangled jungle greenery and beaches – home to some of the best for surfing in all of Japan. We stopped at a viewpoint and, as I gazed out across the lush scenery, a peregrine falcon suddenly swooped menacingly towards me, its coal-black eyes fixed on the packet of wagyu-flavoured crisps in my hands. I lurched backwards but, at the last minute, it peeled away from me, talons retracted. A lucky escape, perhaps – or was my oracle looking out for me? From there, we made for Aoshima, a diminutive island with a circumference of just 1.5km, connected to the mainland by a slender footbridge and surrounded by curious rock formations known as 'the Devil's Washboard'. It was all too easy to imagine a giant dragging its claws through the ebony mudstone and watching as it hardened into lines. The bewitching Aoshima Shrine sits at the centre of the island, surrounded by more than 400 species of subtropical plants. At the temple's oracle zone, I tossed a clay disk into a ring and it shattered, giving me – the oracle there claimed – another dose of Japanese luck. Next was Kagoshima, known as the 'Naples of the Orient' due to its coastal location and active volcano, Sakura Jima, which puffs clouds of ash (grey safe; white danger) into the bay. We visited the popular Ibusuki spa resort on the outskirts of the city, where I was buried up to my neck in black volcanic sand, then feasted on steaming bowls of sabi-sabi hot pot. That afternoon, we travelled inland to the Chiran Samurai Houses, a village of well-preserved Samurai dwellings – some still inhabited by descendants of the Shimazu samurai. Their clan had once ruled the area, until – during the Meiji Restoration of 1868 – Kagoshima's Satsuma samurai led a battle that toppled the Shogun (local feudal commander) and restored power to the Emperor. But it was our arrival in Nagasaki which proved the most poignant. As the sun rose over the East China Sea, the city's iconic Hirado O-hashi suspension bridge (tomato red, often likened to San Francisco's Golden Gate) appeared to part the low-lying clouds. Our first stop was the Atomic Bomb Museum, which displays a sobering and comprehensive collection that recounts the devastation inflicted on the city and its residents in 1945. More moving still is the peace memorial, located in a tranquil park nearby. With much to process, we broke for lunch, feasting on delicate sashimi and bento served in beautiful lacquerware boxes decorated with traditional Maki-e patterns, a 1,200-year-old technique of painting motifs onto lacquer and sprinkling gold powder before the material hardens. But there is far more to Nagasaki than its tragedy – and our afternoon was dedicated to exploring other aspects of its fascinating past. A notable highlight was the city's Dejima district, a former island built first to contain Portuguese missionaries, and later Dutch traders, to keep them away from the city's Japanese population during Japan's two centuries of isolation. The reconstructed residences show how life was for the only Westerners permitted in the country during that time. On the last day of the cruise – bound for Tokyo once more – I stood on the deck of Diamond Princess, watching southern Japan's craggy mountains melting into the horizon. I looked again at my waka. 'Your request will be granted.' It read. 'The patient will get well. Building a new house will be well. Marriage of any kind and a new employment are both well.' The waka was as good as its word. That week, I returned home to find a job offer awaiting me, our application for a loft extension approved, and news that a family member, who had been waiting on hospital test results, had been declared healthy. Suffice to say, the Shinto oracles had worked their magic. Essentials Emilee Tombs was a guest of Princess Cruises, which offers the 10-night Japan Explorer sailing from £979 per person (based on two sharing an inside stateroom) or £2,219 per person (based on two sharing a balcony stateroom). Departs February 24, 2026.
