Alistair McLean of Activities Abroad broke the good news to us that they are finalists in two categories at the Travel Industries equivalent of the Oscars – The British Travel Awards.
You may remember Ali's comments a few months ago regarding the current economic climate. One of his most memorable rants, Ali said to Victoria Derbyshire on Radio 5Live: "We're far from being in a recession, and I'm sick of all the negativity thank you very much. Our business arranges activity holidays in
Ali founded Activities Abroad in 1999 after telling his last boss where to stick his job! Not surprisingly, he woke up the next day and found himself unemployed.
He sat down with a blank piece of paper and just wrote down what he liked doing. On the top the list was travel and adventure sports. Activites Abroad was born.
They'd just managed to get a massive loan to expand the business, but the day after the money went into the bank account, 9/11 happened. Nobody flew or travelled anywhere for two years after that.
Ali said of the time: "I started asking for more money from private equity companies and that sort of thing, but nobody would touch me. Travel businesses weren’t exactly something people wanted to put their money into at that time. I went to every bank in
It takes a lot to pick yourself up after being in such a financial mess. I remember a particular instance when we’d invited a few friends round for some drinks. Our old C Reg Astra had started leaking oil and stopped working so me and my wife wheeled thirty six cans of cheap lager in an Asda shopping trolley down our street. We looked at each other, and it was just this realisation: how did we get to this point? We had the drive and motivation to get ourselves out of this; we just needed to do it."
A true entrepreneur, Ali has bounced back in remarkable fashion, employing lots of what he's learnt over the years into Activites Abroad, and we wish him the best of luck at the awards ceremony.
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