Just 30 minutes into 2026, Chris Bordessa got down on one knee to ask his partner of 12 years Mair Jones to marry him while they were at the theme park with a coach load of Bordessa Holidays customers.
In that moment, Jones knew 2026 was going to be a year like no other. “I figured it would be busy after Chris proposed to me,” she told TTG.
Ahead of peaks, Bordessa and Jones had already identified new high street premises in Carmarthen and started to explore opening a third shop in Tenby, around 40 minutes away.
With so much going on, both professionally and personally, the couple have already discussed postponing their Beauty and the Beast-themed wedding until next year.
“We’re now looking at getting married next year because it’s going to be such a big year," Jones explained. "I need to concentrate on getting all the shops up and running first.”
Jones said the Tenby shop is currently being renovated ahead of a day installing signage and furnishing the premises.
The Bordessa Holidays team outside the existing Carmarthen shop (Credit: Bordessa Holidays)
According to Jones, Tenby has not had a retail travel agency for 15 years. “The last ones were Tenby Travel and Redwing Travel, but there are couple of homeworkers in the area,” she continued. “We’ve got a good customer base down there because we’ve do a lot of coach trips for musicals and concerts.”
The new shop will be staffed by Bordessa's Mandy Evans and recently recruited apprentice John Kicinski, who has been with the business for a month and has already secured two bookings. Jones will also make regular visits to the branch from Carmarthen.
Meanwhile, Jones and Bordessa are finalising a £220,000 deal for new premises in Carmarthen able to accommodate its team of nine plus the other businesses that already operate out of the same building.
“Because we’re purchasing rather than renting, we’re giving our staff more stability,” Jones said. “Our staff know their futures are secure. We’ve also got some tenants because we’ve purchased the whole building. We’ve got a bit of a bargain on that because we managed to knock them down a bit.”
'More walk-ins'
Last year, Bordessa Holidays lost its Facebook page, which prompted Jones and Bordessa to rethink their digital marketing strategy. “We got banned from Facebook and weren’t sure why,” Jones said. “We were like, ‘what are we going to do?’ You can’t rely on Facebook all the time.”
Jones and Bordessa decided to split the team with half focusing on enquiries from Facebook with the rest supporting customers who walk into the shop. "We have staff chatting to walk-ins on one side and people dealing with Facebook on the other," Jones continued. "We realised last year we needed to encourage more walk-ins."
In addition to Carmarthen and the yet-to-open Tenby shop, Bordessa also has a franchisee-run branch in Llanelli, which opened last year.
Jones and Bordessa started the agency 12 years ago from their garage while working full-time jobs outside the travel industry. In August 2023, the pair opened their shop in Carmarthen, which they are now planning to vacate.
Given how quickly Bordessa has expanded in past few months, how soon will it be before we see a fourth and maybe a fifth shop?
“We’re getting Tenby and Carmarthen up and running this year,” said Jones. “There will be a few more openings in the pipeline next year. But if something comes up before then, we might bite the bullet get on with it.”
