Kathryn Cordey-Hanson, Proximity Coach Travel

Tell us about your role, your journey to this position, and how your work contributes to your organisation’s success

I am Kathryn Cordey-Hanson, Chief Executive of Proximity Coach Travel. Prior to my current role, I worked as a teacher for 20-years before joining forces with my husband, Matthew to form Proximity. We set up the business in 2024 and started trading in 2025, and have enjoyed organic growth, particularly in the Education vertical.

We are a managed agency with a vetted supply chain. I tend to look after the educational clients, and Matt ensures that the fulfilment offerings meet the customer requirements. We are clearly getting things right as we presently score 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot, many of whom are overseas visitors to the UK and Ireland, trusting Proximity to deliver safe, reliable and affordable solutions. The beauty of what we do is we can manage and move any customer requirements, hence the name Proximity and our strapline #CloserThanYouThink.

Our growth has led us to bringing two administrators and a finance manager into the business which enables us to keep blossoming.

What trends or innovations are shaping your sector.

We have seen that the post-covid era finally settle in 2025/26, with the first consistent wave of new coaches entering the market, which has seen more availability and more consistent pricing, only for other factors to throw us curve balls. This year it’s been the conflict in the Middle East which has impacted both the cost of fuel and incoming tourism, both of which is a blow to us as a business. Thankfully, we are a robust and diverse organisation and have found other revenue streams to keep pressing forward.

Innovation wise, we are seeing more technology in the industry, but this is often at the detriment of the customer experience. When people book a coach, they still want the personal touch points throughout the process. We have joined forces with Savari, a AI led coach management system which gives us 24/7, cloud-based access to all of our bookings. Other efficiencies will follow such as auto-pricing and customer tracking live from the Savari portal which is enabling us to keep up with the industry movers and shakers, but we are still huge advocates of personal contacts and relationships.

What changes have you observed in consumer behaviour, and how does your business adapt to stay relevant and connected?

The coach is often the last thing the consumer thinks about, whether it’s in the education sector or other. We are seeing the window of enquiry to departure date getting much shorter, which often means that the customer pays more as we operate in a supply and demand industry. We continue to educate our customers, particularly schools around the importance of booking early to achieve best pricing.

What exciting projects, goals, or plans does your organisation have in the next 12–18 months?

We continue to aggressively forecast for our future and have seen continued growth as expected. This calendar year will see over 50% growth minimum.

Our future plans include a new concept for coach travel which is built around airport transfers. It will be a huge hit from a sustainability perspective and probably more importantly for the customer, it will offer wholesale pricing.

Tell us one unique fact or story about your business that people might not know.

We have a consultancy arm under “The Coach Wizard”, which taps into Matt’s industry experience and expertise. We work on some very bespoke and niche event requirements for key corporate clients and high net worth individuals. We also offer consultancy support to help UK based Tour Operators with their procurements processes, mentoring staff and ultimately helping them save time and money. We have also been in discussion with some language schools around the same offering.

As a member of BETA, what have you found most valuable, and how has it supported your business growth?

Joining BETA has been an invaluable investment and experience. It has connected us with travel bookers and buyers from across the globe and yielded some fantastic relationships and business. We also find the networking with fellow industry professionals equally important to share and learn. Being an educator, I have always embraced being educated so I am keen to continue to listen to people and strive to improve. Finally, BETA gives the sector a voice with the lobbying, engagement and interaction it provides for it’s members.

In your view, what are the biggest challenges, threats, and opportunities facing youth, student, and educational travel in the coming years, and how is your business preparing to meet them?

We only need to look at this year to understand that threats can occur at any time, without warning and can be totally out of our control. However, the UK continues to be a focal point for incoming travel. We are finding that diverse geographical clients are the key. As one door prematurely closes, it’s important to ensure that another one is open and we are finding new markets to be fruitful, particularly from Europe and notably France, Spain and Czechia. We are hoping the forthcoming Youth and Student Travel Summit gives us the platform to further explore opportunities.