Colin Brain, who championed travel agents during his 50-year career in business and leisure travel, has died aged 80.
Brain chaired Abta’s Travel Agents’ Council in the 1980s, as well as its aviation committee, and served six years as vice chairman of the association’s technology committee. He later chaired the Abtarians Association for retired members between 2014 and 2017.
He worked for the RAC’s touring division, Swans Tours and Olympic Holidays, before setting up his own business, Renown Travel, specialising in corporate travel and fly-drive holidays.
Always an advocate of technological advance, Renown became the first UK travel agency to introduce US reservations system Sabre, now a mainstay of the travel world.
In 1990, he set up one of the UK’s first business travel consultancies, Management Solutions UK Ltd, to advise government departments and various large corporations.
His funeral will held on Friday (April 5) at St Marylebone Crematorium, East Finchley, at 2pm, which will be followed by a gathering at Muswell Hill Golf Club.