Phil Evans
Marketing & Ecommerce Director & Co Founder
Phil may still be regarded as a newcomer in the industry but from his modest beginning working as a sales consultant with leading independent travel agency, Winston Rees Travel in 1991, his 17 year career has seen him successfully involved in numerous positions alongside high profile companies giving him an in-depth understanding of travel and what makes it tick! His out of the box thinking has grown into a special flair for developing travel products that meet the needs of today’s travelers and not only build great customer loyalty but positive relationships.
When Winston Rees Travel was sold in 1993 to Going Places, Phil was the only member of the company to be asked to stay and work on a new tour operator that the management team had set up called Travel City Direct.
During his time at Travel City Direct his role evolved as the company grew, working on joint ventures and promotions with companies such as Walt Disney Parks & Resorts including The Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Universal Orlando, and Holland America Cruise Line & Carnival cruise Line, “The World Largest Cruise Line”. He also worked with the BBC & ITV in producing features for Wish You Were Here & BBC Holiday alongside many celebrity presenters.
His main role was that of product manager for Florida, USA & Cruise, which seen him responsible for product and pricing of 17 jumbo jet charter flights per week to Orlando Sanford International Airport, along with all Florida & Cruise holidays sold which were in excess of 180,000 passengers.
In 2005 Travel City Direct was sold to the Avion Group which included XL Airways & XL.COM and Phil decided that it was time to move on in the industry; In April 2006 Phil finally achieved his goal and set up a company called Holidays Yourway.
In July 2007 Phil sold his interest in Holidays Yourway to concentrate on his new venture with David Powell Traveldaddy.co.uk.
David Powell
Managing Director & Co Founder
David Powell began his 34-year travel industry career with Cwmbran Travel in 1974 when he purchased a stake within the company. During his 8 years with Cwmbran Travel David had spear headed the company forward building the retail agency into 6 strong branches and a small tour operation, he left the company in 1982 to set up in a partnership deal, a dedicated Spanish tour operation and charter airline Spanish Express.
Also during this period David had opened numerous shops under the name Holiday Express to sell the holidays created by Spanish Express making the business one of the first travel companies of its kind to have integrated retail sales and tour operations, he later sold the tour operation Spanish Express to the Welsh national airline Awyr Cymru.
In 1997 after steadily growing Holiday Express into 20 successful retail agencies and a large call centre David saw a gap in the lucrative travel industry market which would revolutionise the way in which people would book their holidays "the internet" with this exciting new opportunity of selling holidays for less online David sold a 49% stake in his retail agencies to First Choice PLC to concentrate on developing an online travel agency.
Although many other travel operations dismissed this form of selling to the public David liked the challenge and was determined to make the holiday booking experience as easy and as low cost as possible for the consumer and he knew that he could achieve this by selling online.
In 1994 David successfully launched 3 major internet agencies, Holiday.co.uk, Flight.co.uk & Travel.co.uk, not only had he created these websites in a very short space of time but he was the only travel agency within the UK to sell online, making his businesses the first of their kind.
In 2001 David sold his remaining 51% stake in the retail agencies to First Choice PLC but retained the Holiday Express name as the online business continued to grow by massive proposions to the retail business. In 2005 David sold 100% of his internet businesses to Travelzest PLC where he remained managing director until 2007 when he decided that there were still huge improvements that could be made in the way that people could book their travel arrangements and save money online.
In 2006 after many years of being a strong supporter of The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) after serving on various committees within ABTA David was appointed to the ABTA board of Directors and currently represents the South Wales region.
In July 2007 Phil Evans & David met purely by chance at the offices of one of the leading travel technology suppliers Comtec Europe, where they were both attending meetings, a brief conversation paved they way for discussions for a new travel company that would once again be at the forefront of the travel industry, Traveldaddy was born.
Joanne Beard
Sales Director
Joanna has been employed in the travel industry for some 30 years. Joanna commenced with the airline British Midland before working for a Gwent based travel agency. In 1982 she joined Cwmbran Travel as manager of the newly formed tour operator and airline Spanish Express in Cardiff.
Following the sale Joanna became area Manager for the 20 strong Holiday Express retail shops responsible for staff recruitment and achieving specific sales targets.
On the sale of the retail shops to First Choice PLC Joanna joined the Holiday Express online developments and call centre as Sales and Personnel Director. Joanna was instrumental in achieving sales and profitability targets for the company. Following the sale to Travelzest PLC, Joanne remaind with the company until November 2007.
Joanne joined the Traveldaddy.co.uk team in January 2008 where her leadership skills and vast knowledge and experience of the travel industry will be used once again to drive sales and build strong employee and customer relationships.