Travel agent “London’s richest Asian woman"

Rita Sharma, head of the online holiday website bestattravel.co.uk, has been named as one of the wealthiest Asians in the UK – and the richest Asian woman in London. According to The Independent newspaper, Sharma started life in the travel business with “a string of low-paid jobs selling airline tickets to rich travellers”, then setting up her own company in a small London office in 1986. Today, bestattravel is reportedly valued at some £95 million. The 44-year-old is quoted as saying: “I was disillusioned and had a determination to make something work by myself. I was a great Thatcherite and believed every word she said when she talked about businesses springing from your own back yard. “I found a serviced office in Oxford Street that was about the size of a broom cupboard, and the other thing I had was contacts and the conviction that I could make money out of airline tickets for left-turners.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd