Travel agent Claire Coatman had never been to Notting Hill Carnival before, but she didn’t leave her new friend – Jetset senior reservations agent James Smith – waiting long for an answer when he invited her to Europe’s biggest street party.

In the weeks leading up to the bash, the pair had become acquainted talking through the various quotes Claire had to send to her clients. James, though, wanted to move the conversation on. So that summer, back in 2014, a slight unconventional friendship developed between Claire and James.

The words tumbled out of James’s mouth. He asked Claire if she fancied making the 250-mile journey from the North East, where she lived and worked, to London for the August bank holiday weekend.

She immediately said yes and later that week found herself meeting James in person for the first time. As James strode to the barriers at King’s Cross station, he found himself nervously singing Harry Nilsson’s 1971 song “Coconut”, but more on that later. 

“Our phone conversations were always about quotes, but we had struck up quite a good friendship at that point,” Claire recalls. "One day, we were chatting and he said that Notting Hill was coming up. It was all quite romantic actually. He met me at the station and off we went.”

The pair went to the street party on the Sunday and also “did lots of touristy things” in the capital. In fact, they got on so well, Claire ended up changing her return train ticket and the relationship continued to flourish. Six months later, James decided to move in with Claire in Easington Colliery.  “I went up to the North East without a job,” recalls James. “The rent is much cheaper than down south – I was fully prepared to stack shelves. I’m pretty savvy like that.”

Fortunately, as it was early days for them as a couple, James quickly got a job working for Durham-based operator Mainstreet USA, now Mainstreet Travel Group.

Their relationship has gone from strength to strength ever since. “We’re a really good team – it just works. Everything clicks,” insists James as he talks about their Turkish wedding at Paloma Oceana hotel in Side in front of 20 guests in 2019.

"I booked the wedding ceremony with the hotel and Claire booked the holiday,” James continues. “It was a nice big hotel where everyone could do what they wanted and not be on top of each other. It was just perfect.”

That ’dreadful’ song

While James has been there for Claire throughout their relationship, it was never more evident than when she set about launching her own agency in 2021.

Struggling for a name, Claire recalls what she describes as a “dreadful” song coming into her head. "The agency’s name goes back to when we first met at King’s Cross and he was singing that song about putting the lime in the coconut,” she says.

She decided to call her agency Coconut Travel – not because she enjoyed Nilsson’s song or James’s singing on any level – but because it meant she could include her favourite colour, pink, in the predominantly lime green branding. She felt the two colours complemented each other well. 

Coconut Travel started as a homeworking agency, but Claire’s growing army of customers soon asked if she had considered launching on the high street. “They wanted to come and see me – they persuaded me to find a shop,” Claire reveals. 

Luckily for Claire and her customers, she found a premises in Blackhall Colliery three months after starting to look for a shop. “We’re in a village, which is lovely,” says Claire. “The nearest travel agency to us is four miles away.”

Working ’til 10

Claire has grown her business carefully. In April this year, she launched a homeworking division, which currently has three homeworkers with another five set to join its ranks in September. 

James, though, could see his wife was stretched, working nine-to-five in the shop before coming home to support the homeworkers well into the evening. "There are a couple of school teachers among the homeworkers who would log on at the end of the day and Claire would be helping them until 10 at night,” he explains. 

Nonetheless, it was Claire, not James, who suggested he join Coconut Travel as operations director. "I’m very hands on, very frontline. I sell holidays to the public,” she says. “I didn’t really want to tie myself down with another shop so I thought, why not set up a homeworking division? It’s been quite difficult to do both so I asked James if he would come into the business."

James handed in his notice at Mainstreet in July. “My bosses knew it was coming – even on my days off, I would go to the shop,” he reveals. 

Claire insists James was the more nervous of the two about him joining Coconut. However, she admits that on the day he told his bosses he was leaving, her anxiety shot up.

“He was nervous when he left his job at Mainstreet, and so was I,” she continues. “We’re going to try and go with the flow.” 

To emphasise her point about being hands on, she declares: “James has got some fresh ideas which we can discuss – but I will have the final say!”

In his new role, James will support Coconut’s homeworkers and oversee day-to-day operations. He will work from home and come into the shop when necessary. 

“Both the homeworking division and the shop are my priorities,” Claire stresses. “The shop is my baby though. The homeworking division is a way of growing the business without becoming bogged down with a new shop.”

When I ask James how he feels about the new working arrangement, he jokes: "We’re travel’s new power couple."