Name: Charlie O’Connell & Steve McPhilemy
Occupation: world-renowned Day-trip gurus
Website: www.daytoursworld.com
Why do you love to travel?
It was our destiny and although we are internationalists, we are from one of the great nomadic tribes of the world – the Irish.
Who would be your ideal travel partner and why?
Steve – Michael Palin, he’s the David Bowie of Travel.
What’s been your favourite destination this year and why?
We both loved our day trip from Siem reap to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but our near-fatal taxi ride from there to Pnom Penh was one of our inspirations for founding www.daytoursworld.com
Describe the most unusual situation you’ve found yourself in while travelling.
Charlie was lost his suitcase off the side of a speedboat in shark infested waters in Thailand and dived in to retrieve it, it contained 5grand cash!! All his funds for our round the world trip
Name two up-and-coming destinations for 2012 and why.
We are doing massive business in Western Canada, day trips to Whistler, snowmobiling in Banff, mountain-biking near Big White
If you could return to any country you’ve been to, what would it be and why?
We have a very very soft spot for Thailand, the greatest stopover country in the world, bar none
Give us an overview of what you’ll be discussing at the TNT Sun And Snow Show:
How our start-up website will follow in the illustrious footsteps of Hostelworld.com and be the next online travel website to sell for $200 million,
Who will find your talk relevant?
Anyone who wants to book a day trip from anywhere to everywhere!
And anyone who loves to see genuine travellers set-up a successful travel business
Where’s your favourite place in London?
Any street with a decent hostel, we know them all. As young tour-guides we would spend days driving round and round dropping off promotional material for our backpacker bus-tours to try and lure-in some impressionable and ‘fresh-off-the-boat’ young antipodeans
