Portsmouth grads win top award for holiday business

Award winning co-founders Barry Moore, left, and Nathan Cable promote their travel company

TWO former University of Portsmouth graduates have just received the New Business of the Year award for their company, Party Hard Travel, at the Toast Of Surrey awards ceremony 2017.

The event, held in Weybridge, was attended by some of the top businesses based in Surrey and the wider area.

Co-founder Nathan Cable said: ‘It has been a crazy few weeks here at Party Hard Travel, after breaking our weekly sales record three weeks in a row, our Party Hard competition going live on ITV’s new series of Love Island, and now winning one of the most prestigious awards in the county.’

Party Hard Travel targets a market aged 18-30, offering value holiday packages to Ayia Napa, Ibiza, Kavos, Magaluf and Malia amongst other party destinations.

Holidaymakers benefit from event tickets to club nights as well as beach and boat parties.

The business was created by Nathan and co-founder Barry Moore.

The pair came up with the idea in 2009, but turned it into reality in 2014 when they secured funding from investment firm Midasflo. Since then they’ve been involved in various big-name projects such as sponsoring competitions for MTV’s Geordie Shore series and launching a B2B platform allowing travel agents to sell Party Hard holidays across the country.

However, the pair said it wasn’t an easy process.

Nathan explained: ‘It hasn’t been an easy ride to get to the position we are in.

‘The biggest obstacle was trying to convince people that we’d found a gap in the market with our holidays, which would include the full events package in the price.

‘We have always remained positive and put in the hours needed to turn our idea into a reality.’