Two years later, this was followed by a two-day educational break to London for the Sixth Form. This was David’s first foray into overnight tours by train and included a tour of the Palace of Westminster, a visit to the Bank of England Museum and an outing to the theatre to see ‘An Inspector Calls’.
Soon after, in 1992, David was asked to arrange a similar London break for his local church youth group. This was to mark the start of an eleven-year stint organising day trips and weekend breaks for his local church as Parish Outings Co-ordinator & later Parish Tours Director.
In the autumn of 1996, David moved away from using local coach operators, due to concerns about vehicle quality, and began what was to become a long association with Shearings Holidays. The new partnership allowed David to continue operating his own day excursions programme, with coach hire arranged through Shearings, and at the same time broadened the range of destinations for overnight tours (including city breaks abroad), which were packaged by Shearings. Weekend break destinations during this time included several breaks in Scotland, Yorkshire and also a weekend break to Paris. The partnership with Shearings continued until the winter of 1998, when the decision was made to move the tour planning back in-house in order to improve quality – mainly in relation to hotels. It also gave David greater freedom when planning specialist itineraries such as pilgrimages and religious heritage tours. Shearings would, however, continue to provide coach hire for both day excursions and weekend breaks that David organised, but he was once again wholly responsible for planning every last detail himself. The working relationship with Shearings taught David an awful lot about the travel industry, in particular the nuances of tour operation and management. It was also during this time that he began to forge contacts in the industry, many of whom have remained good friends of David all these years later.
