Comment: Create, serve and thrive

Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. And so it came as no surprise that Martin Morgan, owner of Wales’s largest independent agency chain, The Travel House, and with significant vested interests in Swansea City FC and two exclusive hotels, is at it again.

This time, he is planning to develop Swansea airport for regional commercial flying, hoping to attract airlines with smaller aircraft to the 1,472-metre runway.

He’s had a crack at this once before, in 2000. But this time, he’s harnessing the firepower of a group of local businesses to support him, and is confident they can pull it off.

If they do, it will be great news for Wales’s second-largest city, which is already enjoying a higher profile and increased wealth since its football team, of which Martin is a director and majority shareholder, was promoted to the English Premier League in 2011. And it could mean extra business too for agencies in the area – The Travel House has 20 – if carriers start popular routes.

Such drive and passion to build and develop businesses in the sector is one of the reasons Travel Weekly honoured Morgan with our Outstanding Achievement Award at the Agent Achievement Awards in 2014.

The one-time market-stall trader, who trained as a welder and then repped overseas before opening his first agency in 1992, still has fire in his belly to do more (page 4).

Meanwhile, the plan of Travel Designers’ Nick Harding-McKay to set up his own LGBT travel brand on the high street reminds us that the entrepreneurial spirit in our industry isn’t just the preserve of the likes of Martin but is a characteristic of frontline agents too (page 5).

It also highlights the importance of evolving and targeting niche markets to ensure they stay relevant and thrive well into the future.