Claire Smith: Travel agents show the world how to have a party!

YOU haven’t lived until you’ve seen several hundred travel agents bouncing around on a palm tree fringed outdoor dancefloor to Boney M’s One Way Ticket.

This week I’ve been at the ABTA annual travel convention – a time when the industry gets together to rack its brains, share ideas, make deals and socialise.

And let me tell you, these travel industry people know how to party. The women are glamorous, charming and immaculately turned out at all times. The men must be among the most affable, cheerful and sociable beings on earth.

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Even an unexpected shower of rain couldn’t put them off their stride.“It’s my fault,” said one tour operator. “I’ve been praying for rain all year and now it follows me everywhere.”

But as raindrops fell on the open-air table settings, the delegates turned it into an opportunity for fun – fashioning turbans and knotted handkerchiefs out of napkins and scarves.

Give them a few glasses of fizz and play them the Birdie Song and a bunch of off-duty travel agents will form a conga faster than any other group of people on earth.

But what struck me, watching people including lawyers, parliamentary lobbyists and cruise ship bosses whooping it up under the Turkish night-time sky, was that these are people whose job is to make other people happy.

It’s a sociable business – but most of the time it is all about other people – so it makes sense that when people involved in tourism get the chance to have fun and please themselves for a change it is not surprising they seize the opportunity and really go for it.

And alongside the partying and socialising there is some serious thinking going on. The other day I grabbed a quick swim in the sea and strayed close to a group of men who were jumping about in the waves.

I overheard a snatch of conversation and realised they were delegates. As they dived around in the surf, I realised they were discussing the European package holiday directive. That’s dedication for you.