Next Generation Travel buys Surrey firms

Blackpool-based Next Generation Travel (NGT) has purchased three Surrey-based educational travel brands for an undisclosed sum.

NGT has acquired Study Experiences, Sport Experiences and Remembrance Travel for Schools and Young People from Newmarket Holidays.

 

NGT offers tours, including school trips, designed to help young people learn outside the classroom and the new acquisitions will help expand its reach.

The sale of the schools division is part of a larger move by the Surrey operator to focus on its core activities, which include escorted tours and holidays by air across the UK and Europe, USA and Canada, India, Southeast Asia and Africa, as well as river and ocean cruises.

A Newmarket spokesman said: “The sale of this division enables Next Generation Travel to maximise the potential of the brands they are acquiring as it is a sector their team are fully immersed in. It is the next strategic step by Newmarket in sharpening our profile in the escorted tours market.”

The acquisition sees NGT's turnover  across the group climb to £25m. Headcount will increase to 80 and annual passenger figures will exceed 70,000. The three new brands join the NGT portfolio, which also includes the Lancashire-based WST Travel, FHT Travel and Anglia Tours.