The present chairman of Watford Football Club made his fortune selling Mediterranean holidays, and after a brief spell away from the travel industry, he is back in business and being represented by Prima Travel. Simpson Travel, recently set up and owned by Graham Simpson, is to be represented by Prima Travel in Majorca and will cater for luxury end of the villa market and well off the tourist track. Most of the villas are in the Tramuntana and tucked away in small mountain villages. While Simpson Travel may be a new company, the Watford Chairman is no newcomer to the travel business. In 1978 he set up Simply Travel and in 21 years grew from catering for around 80 clients to 40'000 independent minded travellers who appreciated the locally based service and the local knowledge we could offer. In 1999, he sold the most successful Mediterranean holiday business of the 1990s to Thomson Holidays for a multi-million pound figure and ploughed £2.4 million into the football club he has been passionate about all his life. He dedicated the next three years to travelling and Watford FC. After selling Simply Travel in 1999, he was contractually required to stay out of the holiday business for three years. Simpson could have spent that time doing a number of things, during his 40-year career he has worked as a dolphin trainer, a croupier, restaurateur and actor. Simpson left school at 17 and, after a year as a Hertfordshire police cadet, won a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. For 12 years he pursued a career as a actor, doing rep and in the 70s appearing in TV dramas such as Z-Cars. But it was a chance favour for his ex-wife's brother who asked Simpson if he would rent out a few villas in Crete that led to the launch of Simply Travel, which specialised in Mediterranean destinations. His new company covers Spain, Greece, Tuscany, Umbria and Corsica with Prima Travel, which has represented Virgin Travel, Access Travel, Longmere Holidays and Simply Travel, taking care of the Majorcan operation. Simpson's business philosophy is holidaymakers prefer to be treated like guests and individuals rather than tourists and sheep.
Long way South of Watford...