Coach holidays that don't cost the earth
Certified 100% Carbon Neutral
Leisuretime was born in Cardiff in 1995 and was the first coach operator in Wales to offer short breaks and holidays of less than 7 days. Keen prices and an eye for the kind of trips that people wanted saw the company grow rapidly, carrying over 70,000 customers a year at its peak. But nothing is ever forever… When the pandemic hit in 2020, the company was successfully recovering from a difficult few years, but is was not at it’s strongest. So, despite the best efforts of the entire team, Leisuretime (Wales) Ltd had no choice but to cease trading in 2022 as a result of the extreme pressure that lockdown restrictions had imposed on the company and it’s cashflow. The loss of such a popular brand was something that some of Leisuretime’s suppliers took direct action to avoid – and so they approached Toureasy to see whether the brand could live on under new ownership. The rest, as they say, is history and Toureasy bought the Leisuretime brand and relaunched it across South Wales in April 2022. Not only did the Toureasy team bring fresh ideas and lots of energy, but their focus on sustainability meant that Leisuretime also became the UK’s only 100% carbon neutral coach tour operator. If you’re curious about where Toureasy came from, then read on…
His first job was working the front desk in a fancy hotel in central London and over the last 30+ years he has run and owned travel agents, tour operators and tour wholesalers in the UK, USA and Australia, serving hundreds of thousands of customers over the years. He has travelled around the world, swum with sharks and flown The Grand Canyon – lucky man!
In the UK he served as Chair of the Coach Tourism Association for 10 years, during which time he learned a lot about why people love holidaying by coach along with some of the challenges the industry faced. During 2020 he and the entire world were in the grip of COVID-19 and like so many others in our industry he had time on his hands. So, he started thinking about the opportunities that might emerge once the crisis passed and what that might mean for coach holidays. Those thoughts led to more thoughts and conversations with friends, colleagues and family - many combined with a good glass of wine or pint of beer just to help the creative process - and shared over Zoom, of course! As the months passed, a new coach tour operation started to take shape that would put sustainability at its heart and try and to do things a little differently. He even managed to find a name everyone liked - Toureasy In fact, a number of his friends liked it so much that they decided to invest in Toureasy and that gave Sean the backing he needed to turn his idea into a business. They are a great bunch of people and it feels good to have owners like Sean and his friends that really 'get' what we're trying to do.
This includes Michael our designer who makes everything look lovely, Matt who keeps track of our numbers and Daniel and Richard whose teams makes sure our website and IT systems run smoothly along with a few other people that help us as and when needed...
We're loving our journey with Leisuretime and hope you'll join us by coming on one of our trips and finding out why coach holidays can be such fun for anybody who loves sharing their experiences with others. It is a real pleasure to be able to do what we love to do - and even better to do it in a way that protects the planet that we all love exploring...
Your Leisuretime Team
Sean, Andy, Toni, James, Jane, Louise, Nat & Jon
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But seriously, the good news is that he was a great banker that understood customers and so when he saw the light and moved into travel, he was a natural. Quite simply, Andy loves to travel and that is just one of the reasons we love him.
He has visited more places in the UK and Europe than most other people in a couple of lifetimes whilst also holding senior positions with another leading coach operator and tour wholesalers over the last 20 years. We’re so pleased to have him on board running our product and tour operation, although we’re still trying to get used to his line up of cheesy ‘dad jokes’...
After studying geography, she went straight into the operations team of a security company providing ex-military guards on ships travelling through highrisk areas of piracy hijacking. Not sure which Careers Offi cer she spoke to in order to land that job!
Having had her fill of excitement, she then opted for the calmer waters of coach tour operations where she spent 5 years working for one of Wales’ best before joining the Leisuretime team as Operations Manager. She is still an adrenalin junky, though, who really loves to travel - but it has to be warm and sunny which means South Coast beaches in the UK summer and who knows where else in the winter.
Toni is a real diamond that loves what she does and, in our opinion, does it brilliantly.
Suave? Chic? Sophisticated? Nope none of these words have ever been used to describe James. But with what felt like several lifetimes working in hotels behind him he saw the light and moved into the coach tourism industry.
His background in hospitality, a knowledge of geography bordering on the geeky, a passion for all things unique and quirky and a love of adventure means he took to it with an enthusiasm only matched by that of when he finds himself in a bar faced with a choice of real ales.
James now looks after our hotel purchasing and just loves discovering great new places for our customers to stay.
Jane is here to help get the Leisuretime by Toureasy message out there and help more people discover us.
Natalia loves making people happy and always seems to have a smile on her face – which is ideal as her role is to help customers make the right holiday choices and make sure they have a great time.
Before joining Toureasy, she spent many years travelling the world and working in the cruise industry (her absolute favourite destination is Alaska). She actually met her British husband whilst working on a cruise ship - you see what we mean about making people happy. She moved to the UK 7 years ago and in that time has also developed an unnatural love of HP sauce and sausage rolls...
Jon has travel in his blood and has spent over 30 years in the industry, many of them on board cruise ships travelling the world.
Jon loves a chat and share his knowledge and love of travel - and that is lucky as he is one of the first people you might talk to if you’re interested in booking one of our holidays! Jon lives in South Wales and just loves helping people find the perfect holiday.