I’ve spent most of my life travelling the world, first with a backpack and later building two award-winning travel companies. Somewhere along the way, a love of travel became a career and, eventually, the story behind my memoir, Travelman.
Travel has always been in the family. My father, Walter Bridge, was one of Britain’s early pioneers in the travel industry. In 1949, at a time when overseas holidays were still beyond the reach of many British families, he founded Swiss Travel Service and went on to build a successful career in travel. He also encouraged me to Interrail and hitchhike around Europe when I was just 16. It seemed perfectly normal at the time, although I’m not sure I’d be quite so relaxed about it today.
After university, I set off on a 22-month overland journey to Australia and back, travelling through Europe, the Middle East and Asia without a mobile phone, guidebook or credit card. In Australia, a school friend and I drove 24,000 km around the country in an ageing Holden station wagon, taking whatever jobs we could find to pay for food and fuel. University gave me a degree, but travelling gave me an education.
When I returned to London, those experiences led me to Trailfinders Travel Centre, where I spent three years learning the travel business from the ground up. In 1989, I decided it was time to have a go myself and founded Bridge the World.
Long before online booking, budget airlines and smartphones changed the way we travelled, Bridge the World began life in a small office in Camden Town. Over the next fifteen years, it grew into one of Britain’s leading long-haul travel specialists, with five offices, 150 staff and annual sales of more than £50 million.
It was quite a journey. There were successes, awards and opportunities I could never have imagined when we opened the doors, but there were also recessions, the Gulf War, 9/11, fierce competition and plenty of mistakes along the way. I discovered that building a business depended as much on people, trust and relationships as it did on numbers.
One lesson was that burying your passport in the sand on a beach in the south of France isn’t a particularly good idea. Another was that a shareholders’ agreement written on the back of a beer mat can come back to haunt you. Some lessons were funny. Others were anything but.
After Bridge the World, I went on to found the award winning tailor made travel company Bridge & Wickers, continuing a career in travel that had begun with a backpack and very little idea of where it might lead.
Those adventures, businesses, mistakes and, above all, the people I met along the way became the inspiration for Travelman. It is my memoir of travel, entrepreneurship and family, set against a period when the travel industry changed beyond recognition. It is also the story of my father’s influence, the price that can accompany success and a lifelong curiosity about what lies beyond the next horizon.
These days I live in Wellington, New Zealand, where I’ve embraced much of the Kiwi way of life: the scenery, the more relaxed pace, Wellington’s energy and, perhaps inevitably, its excellent coffee.
If you’d like to discover more, you can explore the story of my father, Walter Bridge, including archive film of his life, or read about the beginnings of Bridge the World and Bridge & Wickers elsewhere on this website.
After spending almost two years travelling overland to Australia and back, then three years with Trailfinders in London, Jerry Bridge founded Bridge the World in 1989. Long before online booking, budget airlines and smartphones, he set out to build a travel company inspired by his father’s belief that travel could change lives.
Over the next fifteen years, Bridge the World grew from a tiny office in Camden Town into one of Britain’s leading long-haul travel specialists, with five offices, 150 staff and annual sales of more than £50 million. It was a journey shaped by calculated risks, fierce competition and an industry that never stood still, where success depended as much on trust and relationships as commercial instinct.
Travelman is Jerry’s story behind that journey. It’s a memoir about adventure, entrepreneurship, and family; about building something from nothing; the sacrifices that success demands; and a lifelong love of travel that shaped every major decision along the way.
The name ‘Bridge’ has a long history of travel behind it, which started with Jerry’s father, Walter Bridge. You may have seen the link on the home page of this website that describes how he became a successful businessman. The video is informative and of cultural interest. Likewise, if you’re intrigued about how start-up travel businesses get off the ground, click through to Jerry’s two award-winning companies, Bridge the World and Bridge & Wickers
Jerry now lives in New Zealand and embraces all things ‘Kiwi’. He likes the laid-back pace of life, the stunning scenery, the buzz of Wellington (where he lives 9 months of the year) and the great coffee.
MERGE –
A few lessons learned along the way.Life has a habit of teaching us lessons when we least expect them. Some are amusing, like discovering why burying your passport in the sand on a beach in the south of France is not the best of ideas. Others are more serious, including the moment I learned that writing a shareholders’ agreement on the back of a beer mat is unlikely to end well.The adventures, the mistakes and the people I met along the way shaped both my travels and my business life.Where it all beganMy father, Walter Bridge, was one of Britain’s early travel industry pioneers. In 1949, he founded a Swiss travel service, making overseas holidays possible for ordinary families after the Second World War. He also encouraged me to interrail and hitchhike around Europe when I was just 16 years old. At the time it felt perfectly normal, and it sparked a lifelong curiosity about the world that has never left me.If you’d like to learn more about Walter’s remarkable life, you can find his story and archive film on the video link above.From backpacker to travel entrepreneurUniversity gave me a degree, but travelling gave me an education.After graduating, I set off on a 22-month overland journey to Australia without a mobile phone, a guidebook or a credit card. The trip included driving 24,000km around Australia in an ageing Holden Station Wagon, taking whatever work I could find to pay for food and fuel.Those experiences eventually led me into the travel industry, where I founded Bridge the World and later Bridge and Wickers.
