Palm Trees Travel began trading on 4 February in the Warwickshire town of Coleshill.

After spending the past decade with Prestige serving as business development manager for the Midlands and Central England, Clueit told TTG she had been taking a break after leaving the operator when the opportunity to launch her own agency arose.

“I left Prestige in November and then my daughter came back from Australia, so I knew I wanted some time off and to look for something different in January.

“Family and friends were always asking me about travel and holidays so I thought ‘why don’t I just go for it’. In no time at all the store had become available and I was getting ready to open.”

Earlier in her career, Clueit spent 15 years working as a travel agent at a Co-op Travel store in Coleshill, where she currently lives.

Since opening Palm Trees Travel in a former knick-knack store on the high street, Clueit said she had already received a number of customer enquiries.

“When the Co-op store closed down it left Coleshill without a [high street] travel agency, so now I’m up and running there have been loads of people popping in to say how nice it is to have one again.”