Dr Ian Wilson founded WEXAS in 1970 and remains the company’s chairman, taking an active role, together with the WEXAS board, in the direction and development of the company. He continues to travel the world in search of destinations to promote.

Born in Edinburgh, Wilson emigrated to New Zealand aged nine, where his father’s recurring bouts of malaria would diminish thanks to the warmer climate. By 13, Wilson’s hobby was collecting travel brochures from around the world. However, he didn’t come back to Britain for another nine years – having graduated from Auckland University with a degree in French, he won a place at Oxford to study for a doctorate in political philosophy.

Wilson enjoyed his academic life, but his career plans didn’t match those his mother had for him. While she was hoping he’d have a career in business, perhaps becoming a diplomat or lawyer, Wilson simply enjoyed discovering new facts and evolving theories.

On leaving Oxford he found a job with J Walter Thompson, the advertising agency, but wasn’t enthralled by the mundane nature of the work. A year later, aged just 26, he decided to start his own travel club in his spare time, as a way out of climbing the corporate ladder. Initially aimed at university students and teachers, the club offered cheap flights in return for a £1.25 annual membership fee.

At this time the club was called WUNEXAS – or World Universities Expeditionary Association – and the first mailshot, funded by Wilson’s overdraft, was printed up by a friend at J Walter Thompson during the lunch hour. Meanwhile, Wilson spent his time negotiating cheap deals with flight wholesalers, promising them a certain amount of bookings. In turn, that allowed members to buy tickets well below their face value.

Within months Wilson left his job at the advertising agency to work fulltime on the club and his success snowballed. By the end of the first year the club had 1,200 members and the following year the figure grew to 3,000, allowing Wilson to move from temporary to proper offices in Knightsbridge, where the company is still based today. At around this time, WUNEXAS became WEXAS – World Expeditionary Association – and membership was open to all.

From the beginning the club offered some of its profits as grants in support of university expeditions. With no material aspirations or desire to become rich, Wilson just hoped to do something useful, while getting the chance to travel the world. WEXAS has supported more than 200 expeditions in its time and is now committed to providing grants to the African Foundation and Cool Earth under the WEXAS Travel Foundation, a charity funded by the company.

Keen to enjoy his success, by 1974 Wilson, as chairman, appointed a managing director for the first time, allowing him to spend up to four months each year travelling the world, soon with a wife and two young children in tow. Surfing, diving and sailing were family favourites.

Over the next three decades, Wilson and his managing directors ensured WEXAS continued to flourish. Its membership base has remained loyal, and older and wealthier clients have helped develop the club into a tour operator offering hotels, cruises, car hire, flights, insurance and airport VIP lounge access.

Meanwhile, the in-house and editorially independent magazine, Traveller, has developed from strength to strength, publishing work from some of the finest travel writers and photographers, while The Traveller’s Handbook has stood for more than 30 years as the traveller’s bible. It contains everything a traveller needs to know when on the road, in the air or at sea. WEXAS has expanded into the corporate sector, with the creation of WEXAS Travel Management, and into cruises under the name White Star Cruises.

Along the way, while travelling for business at the same time, Wilson has enjoyed some extremely special opportunities, including being one of very, very few tourists ever allowed to visit the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean. At present he lives in London and his family have a home in New Zealand. Wilson continues to surf at every opportunity.

Dr Ian Wilson is the author of:

• Trouble-free Travel: An Insider’s Guide
• 500 Inside Tips for Travellers
• 500 Destinations to Avoid - and 500 to go to
• 1000 Tips and Traps for the Worried Well: A Guide for Men in Middle Life
• Black Jenny (a novel about Shakespeare’s Dark Lady)
• The Influence of Hobbes and Locke in the Shaping of the Concept of Sovereignty in 18th Century France