19 offers of TV stardom – but Thorne Travel opts out of 'celebrity thing'

Offers began to flood in after the Ayrshire-based agency became an internet sensation with its online advert.

Shona Thorne told TTG the team had made a unanimous decision that it “wasn’t the right thing for the business”.

“If we wanted the ‘celebrity thing’ it would have been fine, but we did this video for a bit of fun and we wanted to do the right thing by our customers,” she said.

“If the programmes had been about portraying agents in a better light we might have been more keen, but they wanted to focus on our personalities, and we decided it just wasn’t the right thing for us.”

Enquiries from TV companies are not the only thing that Thorne Travel has received since its online advert went viral, attracting almost one million Youtube views within a week.

“If we wanted the ‘celebrity thing’ it would have been fine, but we did this video for a bit of fun”

Thorne revealed that Disney had sent a parcel packed with stuffed toys worth hundreds of pounds. The company told the agency it was a “thank you for putting the fun back into travel” with their video, which featured a man dressed as Mickey Mouse.

The toys will be given away to local children in need between now and Christmas.

After Thorne informed Disney of her plans to give the toys away, the company responded by sending another box of Disney ears, hands and wands. These will be handed out to children at a Christmas party which the agency is planning at a local hotel, and which will also form the basis for a new online advert.

“We just wanted to do things to thank the local community. We opened five years ago in the middle of the recession - we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for their support then, so we want to support them now,” she added.

As for the video itself, Thorne admitted that she had eventually taken down it down on Friday to give staff “some respite” from all the press enquiries. By Tuesday however it had been reposted by someone else, already attracting more than 33,000 hits by the time TTG went to press.