With a B.Com and some post graduate marketing work at Unisa, I was working for the Industrial Development Corporation when the 1969 Stock Market boom happened and I luckily made R1000 . I spent it on a 6 week trip around Europe and then just had to get into the travel business. After a few years doing hotel bookings in a firm called called BOOK-YOU, I finally plucked up the courage to put my own name to a tour operator called Thompsons; with a staff of 2 in 1978. Initially we took groups of South Africans abroad and in 1992 when Nelson Mandela was released we started an incoming business which has become very successful. The company was bought by the Travel Corporation and now is quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange as part of Cullinan Holdings. I retired as the Managing Director in 2007 and now keep myself busy by consulting.
Anton Thompson
