Thomson agent denies pushing Tunisia
A Thomson travel agent has denied telling a customer that going to Tunisia was ‘100% safe’ and pushing the destination.
Giving evidence yesterday at the inquest into the deaths of 30 British holidaymakers, Amy Smallman, assistant manager at the Thomson shop in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, said she did not make that guarantee to customer Paul Thompson, who survived the attack.
"I always advise people to follow the FCO advice and don’t give safety guarantees to any destination. Nowhere is 100%. I wouldn’t have said that," she told the inquest.
Mr Thompson told the inquest he and his wife had visited the Ilkeston branch on May 5 2015 to discuss changing their holiday in Rhodes to a different destination.
"We originally wanted Egypt but the travel agent pushed for Tunisia," Mr Thompson told the inquest.
He said agents had mentioned ‘special deals’ for Tunisia, where 24 people had been killed in the Bardo National Museum attack on March 18.
Mr Thompson said his wife had mentioned the attack in the branch, but another travel agent had said avoiding the resort of Sousse after the Bardo attack in Tunis was like avoiding Skegness if there was an attack in London.
Smallman, who has worked for Thomson for 15 years, dismissed this as ‘ridiculous’ and denied Tunisia had been pushed as a destination.
She said the customers had been looking for a better value destination and Tunisia met the criteria.
She added that if a destination was on sale, she assumed it was safe. "We just follow the advice. So if something is on sale, then I sell that destination. If it is not on sale and is not safe, then we don’t sell that destination," she said.
The inquest also heard that since the attack Thomson shops have introduced desktop cards which show the FCO travel advice to destinations being sold.
Mr Thompson said on arrival at the five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba a holiday rep at a welcome meeting in Tunisia had also said the resort was ‘100% safe’.
Islamist Seifeddine Rezgui gunned down 38 people on June 26 2015 before being shot dead by police.
The inquest will investigate whether the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Thomson parent TUI failed to protect British tourists.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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