New scholarship launched for budding Yorkshire travel entrepreneurs

For the chance to gain a place on the programme and an individual grant of £10,000, applicants are invited to submit a business plan, which will be reviewed by the Travel Counsellors recruitment team, after which successful applicants will be invited to take part in a pitch session in front of a panel of industry experts.

Applications are open now via the Travel Counsellors website and will close on 30 April 2024. Pitch sessions will take place at the support team centre in Manchester in May, with a view to setting up businesses from July.

Matt Harding, director of franchise sales at Travel Counsellors, said: “We are thrilled to offer aspiring young entrepreneurs in Yorkshire the opportunity to start their own travel business.

"There is a wealth of talent in the region, with some fantastic travel and tourism courses at Leeds Beckett University. We’re committed to attracting the next generation of business owners, and look forward to welcoming applicants and reviewing their travel business pitches.”

According to the survey of UK-wide graduates, commissioned by Travel Counsellors, the two most important priorities for new graduates when considering their future career is flexibility and work-life balance and strong earning potential.

For 15 per cent of new graduates, being able to make a positive difference and impact on people and communities is a key consideration in a future career.

Vitruvian Partners-backed Travel Counsellors was first founded in 1994, and is the UK’s largest technology platform for travel entrepreneurs. The platform connects over 2,000 independent business owners.

In the year to 31 October 2023, Total Transaction Value on the platform was more than £900m, a jump of over 20 per cent against the previous year.