More than 100 former Yugotours staff are due to be reunited in Croatia more than two decades after the company closed.
The well-known trade-friendly tour operator collapsed in 1995 as a result of the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the ensuing conflict.
In its hey day it sent close to 500,000 holidaymakers a year to the countries of the former Yugoslavia, now Croatia, Slovenia and Montenegro. It was popular with travel agents, holding regular regional road shows and trade promotions, and producing large, colourful holiday brochures in the days before online bookings.
This weekend, around 120 former employees are to meet at resort of Porec on the Istrian coast of present day Croatia for a reunion.
They are travelling from the UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The four-day reunion, from May 3 to 6, includes a cocktail party, a boat trip to Rovinj via the Lim Fjord, and a Grand Yugotours Reunion gala dinner in Villa Polesini.
It has been organised by Joanne Purssell and Jill Jackson who worked at the Yugotours head office in London’s Regent Street as well as working as holiday reps for the company, which also had a branch office in Manchester.
Purssell said: “So many of us have stayed in touch over all these years and we have always said we would do this grand reunion.
“It has taken serious planning with people coming from far and wide and we are all delighted to once again be together to talk about the old days and they really were good days because Yugotours was a fantastic company to work for.
“Customers who enjoyed Adriatic holidays booked again and again and travel agents hugely supported the company – there was a fantastic spirit”.
Yugotours was well known for offering good value holidays, with holidaymakers attracted by the short flight time, and the destination’s attractions, including its coastline.
