Welsh homeworker tunes into local market with community radio

Shimmin-Vincent set up his business almost a year ago with his husband Chris Shimmin-Vincent, after switching to Protected Trust Services.

 

He began his travel career as a trainee high street agent with Going Places then moved out of travel, as an accommodation manager for the University of Bath and housekeeping manager for Center Parcs.

 

However, travel “drew” him back and he was a homeworker with The Midcounties Co-operative for many years until launching the holiday creators on August 1, 2025, as a PTS member.

 

Husband Chris also has travel experience, having worked as a holiday rep for Airtours in Ibiza and then as cabin crew for British Airways for more than 10 years. He has also been an IT manager and now works in the operations centre of Transport for Wales.

 

“Chris is a huge help because he does all the IT and social media; he built our website,” said Shimmin-Vincent.

 

“Our skills work well; he knows about travel as well as IT.”

 

He said he moved to PTS to have more control of his own business, create his own brand and dynamically package tailor-made holidays with an Atol.

 

Since launching his business with PTS, he has made sales worth about £200,000 – compared to about £40,000 in the year before.

 

“While that 400% jump from my previous £40k is a great milestone, Chris and I are most proud of the quality of those bookings,” he said.

 

“Because our model focuses on high-value, tailor-made itineraries, luxury travel and river cruising rather than high-volume package sales – and achieving a healthy 18% margin – that figure represents a really strong, profitable foundation as we look to expand and recruit our own homeworkers.

 

He added: “Because I’ve been a homeworker, I want to make sure that we have everything in place to support them,” noting that high street premises may also be an option, if the right premises come up.

 

He continued: “I am doing a lot of multi-centre holidays – I just had a customer who’s been across Japan on bullet trains and then flew to South Korea.

 

“We are doing bespoke things that you can’t get off the shelf.

 

“When I chose the name of the holiday creators, it was because I am creating someone’s holiday.

 

“People want more bespoke, more authentic things…off the beaten track.”

As well as the radio partnership, he is planning to hold more community events to market the business locally.

 

The agency held a launch party along with suppliers and now plans a first birthday party at a community centre plus a Spanish tours evening at a local tapas restaurant.

 

Most business now comes from referrals and he is also seeing engagement from videos, a travel blog and Facebook groups for fans of Princess Cruises and MSC Yacht Club.

 

“We have started to get a lot of luxury customers, because the area of Newport we live in is quite an affluent area…and we get a lot of referrals from those customers; it just organically happened,” he said.

 

Emma Collis, PTS managing director, said: “Stuart and the holiday creators are a fantastic example of what can happen when a travel business has the freedom to grow in its own way, with the right protection and support behind it.

 

“At PTS, our role is not to tell members who to sell to, what to promote, or how to shape their business. It is to give them the structure, protection and flexibility to move forward with confidence and full control.

 

“Stuart has built something brilliant in less than a year, and it has been a real pleasure to support his journey.”