PANORAMA Holidays boss Justin Fleming has admitted to some “unorthodox” tactics during his 13 years of operating to Tunisia.
During a prestigious London dinner held in his honour, Fleming was presented with the Jasmin d’Or award by the minister of tourism Slaheddine Maaoui in recognition of his contribution to Tunisia’s tourist industry.
But the undisputed nice man of travel has not always been so squeaky clean and took his own revenge during a particularly bad summer of overbooking.
A Tunisian hotelier said he would not accept Justin’s 20 clients arriving the next day due to overbooking problems.
“I remembered that I had 20 clients already in the hotel so I collected their room keys and gave them to the incoming clients who arrived at the airport the following day. I never got a contract with that hotelier again.”
He also recalled visiting the Tunisia National Tourist Office’s Dover Street headquarters 13 years ago and telling Tijani Guetat that he had started up a tour operation to the destination.
“A week later Tijani resigned from the tourist office and said he was going to start his own travel business. But then a month later he reapplied for his tourist office job.”
It took another seven years for Guetat and his colleague Kader Chelbi to eventually set up Wigmore Holidays.
But the modest Fleming did not take all the glory during his acceptance speech.
He praised his partner Nick Munday and all the staff at Panorama who had contributed to the company’s success over the years. And one former member of staff got a special mention – national sales manager Paul Riches who succeeded in taking 5,000 travel agents to the destination during his six years at the company, he said proudly.
“Needless to say they were all single, female and under 21,” Fleming added.