PGL Travel

History

PGL was established in 1957 by Peter Gordon Lawrence as PGL Voyages. In the 1960s and early 1970s, its market was young adults and based on three main activities – canoeing, sailing and pony trekking – with accommodation in tents. PGL moved into the school and group travel market and expanded in the 1980s, purchasing more properties, ranging from a mansion house in Perthshire to a converted farm in Oxfordshire.

PGL opened a headquarters in the South of France and became one of the first UK organisers of canoeing holidays in the Ardèche Gorge.

In the early 1990s, the acquisition by the company of the former Quest Outdoor Adventure programme, and of a number of centres operated by competitors, resulted in a considerable expansion in the schools' adventure market in the UK and France. In 1993, the company entered the school ski market with the acquisitions of Ski Europe and Ski Wessex.

In 2000, PGL purchased Château de Grande Romaine, a 300-bed former hotel and grounds on the eastern outskirts of Paris.

In July 2004, PGL agreed to buy its biggest rival, 3D Education and Adventure from Center Parcs for £12 million, in order to allow Center Parcs to focus on improving its holiday villages, which added three more centres to PGL's portfolio on the South Coast of England, one on the Isle of Wight, and a contract with Pontins to provide children's activities at their holiday parks under the name 'Go Active', which ended in 2010 when Pontins entered administration.

In December 2005, PGL suspended three staff members following allegations of inappropriate behaviour involving alcohol, guns and drugs. The allegations were substantiated by photographs showing the staff members engaging in misconduct at their former centre in South Wales. The Children's Commissioner for Wales and the NSPCC condemned the actions, with Natalie Cronin of the NSPCC stating, "they exposed children to unnecessary danger. This behaviour could have resulted in a child suffering serious harm". In response to the incident, PGL bosses admitted they were "shocked and embarrassed" and initiated an internal investigation, implemented stricter policies and enhanced staff training to prevent such incidents in the future.

The company was sold in 2007 to Holidaybreak Plc and formed the first part of that company's Education Division. Property acquisitions in the UK included Caythorpe Court, near Grantham, in 2004 and in 2009, a facility near Liddington in Wiltshire.

In July 2011, Holidaybreak was purchased by Cox & Kings Limited, based in India. In 2014, PGL opened an office in Melbourne, Australia, and acquired two centres in Victoria and one in Queensland: Campaspe Downs, Camp Rumbug and Kindilan.

In 2017, PGL sought to acquire two new centres: Newby Wiske Hall (formerly North Yorkshire Police Headquarters) and Bawdsey Manor on the Suffolk Heritage Coast.

PGL's largest area of business continues to be school trips and educational travel. These range from activity and adventure trips to subject focussed trips such as science, ICT, Maths, Field Studies and French Language courses. During the UK school terms, PGL mainly offers school and youth group holidays, as well as birthday parties and day trips. Outside of term times, PGL also offers family and child-only adventure holidays (summer camps).

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had an effect on its business, leading to disputes with customers concerning refunds.

In October 2021, Ofsted suspended the registrations of four PGL-operated activity centres in England due to serious safeguarding concerns. These issues included environmental health and safety violations, as well as allegations of staff misconduct involving substance misuse.

In June 2023, at Guildford Magistrates Court, the company pleaded guilty to violations of Section 33 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Subsequently, on 2 October 2023, at Staines Magistrates Court, they received a £1 million fine, £18,006 in costs, and a £181 victim surcharge. The court learned that since 2009, PGL had been aware of 520 children across its sites who had suffered finger injuries from doors, some severe enough to cause amputation, yet failed to proactively install finger guards to prevent future incidents.

In January 2025, PGL acquired three new centres: Grosvenor Hall in Ashford; Dearne Valley in Doncaster and Overstrand Hall in Cromer from Inspiring Learning Group, who operated Kingswood activity centres, one of PGL's biggest rivals in a rescue deal, to ensure that the planned residential trips for over 50,000 young people that year could go ahead. The acquired centres would trade under the PGL name until the end of the season when they would undergo a full transition. PGL also announced they would accept new bookings from impacted Kingswood customers at the price previously agreed with Kingswood, and further reduce that price to recognise any monies previously paid.

Abroad

PGL has centres in France for school groups and other youth groups - which offer both activity and educational holidays - and 3 centres in Australia for school groups, youth and other groups, and school holiday camps.

France

• Château de Grande Romaine, Île-de-France
• Domaine de Segries, Ardèche

Australia

• PGL Camp Rumbug (South Gippsland, Victoria)
• PGL Campaspe Downs (Kyneton, Victoria)
• PGL Kindilan (Redland Bay, Queensland)

References

Sources

• The Independent, 24 July 2008
• Article from The FT on acquisition by Cox & Kings, 18 August 2011
• Article from Travel Weekly, 27 July 2011
• Article on expansion to the Australian market, 17 January 2014
• BBC article on purchase of PGL Liddington, 13 May 2010

References

1. (August 31, 2004). "Peter Gordon Lawrence".
2. (2011-07-29). "3D Education & Adventure (part of Center Parcs) {{!}} Oxygen Consulting".
3. (22 July 2004). "Center Parcs sells 3D business to focus on holiday villages".
4. (2010-11-13). "Pontin's falls into administration as fond memories fail to save firm". [[The Guardian]].
5. "". link
6. (2005-12-12). "Staff suspended at adventure camp".
7. Bowers, Simon. (May 18, 2007). "Multimillion pound windfall for PGL bosses". [[The Guardian]].
8. (2017-03-16). "North Yorkshire Police announce sale of headquarters of 40 years near Northallerton". [[Itv.com]].
9. Megan Goodwin. (24 March 2017). "Bawdsey Manor purchased by adventure holiday company PGL". [[East Anglian Daily Times]].
10. "PGL".
11. (6 May 2020). "Hard-up parents plea for refunds from PGL travel firm". [[BBC News Online.
12. Badshah, Nadeem. (2021-10-28). "Four activity centres in England suspended over 'serious' safeguarding concerns". [[The Guardian]].
13. (2021-10-29). "Ofsted suspends kids holiday centre activities over safeguarding issues".
14. "£1 million fine for outdoor education provider in Waverley".
15. McDowell, Tim. (2025-01-17). "PGL Beyond announces package of support following Inspiring Learning Group entering Administration".
16. (2025-01-18). "Outdoor learning company closes seven UK activity centres".