Tributes have been paid to entrepreneur Nick Tarsh, who developed the Insight and Trafalgar brands and helped create the European Tour Operators Association.
His family said he died on May 10 at the age of 86, after battling with metastatic prostate cancer for almost 20 years, and his funeral was held on Wednesday (May 19).
His son David Tarsh – managing director of Tarsh Consulting – read the obituary at the funeral and said: “It is a huge loss to the world that my dad has left us.”
After excelling at school and representing England as a schoolboy rugby player, he read law at Cambridge, then qualified as a barrister.
He opted for a career in business, and thanks to backing from an uncle, he bought a share in the Overseas Visitors Club (OVC), which he ran for a decade.
Towards the end of his time running the OVC, he acquired Trafalgar Travel, which took long-haul visitors on escorted coach tours around Europe, and built up the company before selling it on.
Later, he founded Insight International Tours, and with the assistance of his brother-in-law, Stephen Lucas, he competed with Trafalgar.
In 1990, he became the founding chairman of the European Tour Operators Association (Etoa), which was established to lobby for the industry at European Union level.
At the age of 60, he sold Insight and dedicated the rest of his life to charity, fundraising and taking on roles for Shelter, Relate and several charitable institutions. His charity work saw him recognised with an OBE in 2006.
He married Helen (pictured) in 1959 and they had four children and eight grandchildren.
David said: “Despite all his substantial achievements, he was modest. He preferred to give credit than to take it.
“Nick Tarsh was a true hero; a man who lived his life to the full and made a positive contribution to the lives of everyone he met…and many, many more who he didn’t meet.”
David recalled meeting a top diplomat at the Israeli embassy in London with his father to ask what Israel’s government could do to promote peace and dialogue.
They also worked together on a PR pitch for US tour operator Tauck.
“When the sales director of our prospective client entered, the first thing he did was to grasp my dad’s hand and proclaim what an incredible honour it was to meet him. It was as if we had Christiano Ronaldo, Babe Ruth and Jesus Christ on our team. And, yes, we were appointed,” said David.
He asked if any industry professionals want to make a donation in Nick’s memory, they can donate to charities that support the homeless or the peaceful co-existence of Jews and Arabs in Israel.