Frank Houtstra

Director , S-Cape Travel The Netherlands

Bike holiday mania has had me in its grip since I was a fourteen-year-old, setting off around Lake IJsselmeer on my paper round bicycle with a good friend. One of my all-time-favourite reads is a book by Wim Dussel on a group cycling the Bikecentennial '76. This was a coast-to-coast tour across the United States in the summer of 1976, in commemoration of the bicentennial of America's Declaration of Independence. After obtaining a degree to become a physical education teacher, I followed with a short course in tourism. Looking for work in 1992, an employment agency dispatched me to Fietsvakantiewinkel (Bike Holiday Shop) in the town of Woerden. The company happened to be run by Cobi and Gijsbert whom I immediately recognized as two of my hero’s in the Bikecentennial’76 book! It was destined to be. It was my first proper job and (with an interval of four years as product manager of bicycle tours at SNP) it’s still my dream job today. In 2000, I took on overall responsibility for the company. Surrounded by a fantastic and inspired team I am full of confidence for the future.