Survivors of the Sousse beach attack in Tunisia, including the widow of a former soldier killed in the shooting, told an inquest they would not have travelled to the country if tour operator Thomson had flagged the high threat from terrorism.

Seifeddine Rezgui, 23, killed 38 holidaymakers, including 30 Britons, when he opened fire with an assault rifle in the Imperial Marhaba hotel on 26 June 2015. The inquests into the deaths of the 30 Britons heard evidence from survivors about the booking process, all of whom said they were not directed by Thomson to sections of travel advice from the Foreign Office (FCO) that described a high threat of terrorism in Tunisia and that warned foreigners could be targeted.

One witness alleged that a travel agent for Thomson, which is owned by Tui, said the country was “100% safe”. Cheryl Stollery, whose husband, John, a social worker and former soldier, was shot in the head by Rezgui, said she would have expected staff at Thomson to flag security issues.

“We would still want to have gone on holiday but we would have changed the destination regardless of the cost,”she told the inquests in London. “We would never put ourselves at risk … I was confident that any information I needed to know would be shared with me.”

Stollery, who gave a moving tribute to her 58-year-old husband last week, said she was not sent any documentation from Thomson recommending consulting the FCO travel advice after paying for the holiday in the Retford branch in Nottinghamshire. Before the attack in Sousse, the FCO advice included warnings of a high threat of terrorism that could target foreigners and made reference to previous terror attacks in Tunisia, including the assault on the Bardo Museum in Tunis in March 2015, during which 21 people died including one Briton.

John Stollery, 58, was among those killed in Sousse. His wife said she would have expected Thomson staff to provide information on the security risk. Photograph: Irwin Mitchell/PA

Paul Thompson, a survivor of the Sousse attack, told the inquest he was informed by Thomson travel agents that Tunisia was “100% safe” before booking the trip. Thompson said he and his wife, Zoe, raised safety concerns with a travel agent after the attack on the Bardo but were reassured it was a “one-off” like the 7/7 bombings.

The couple then booked a holiday to Sousse and were caught up in the assault on theImperial Marhaba hotel. Thompson told the inquest that Amy Smallman, a travel agent at the Thomson holidays shop in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, encouraged him and his wife to travel to Tunisia.

Smallman denied “pushing” Tunisia as a destination and telling him the country was “100% safe”.

Thompson said another employee likened the relationship between events in Tunis and Sousse to London and Skegness. “They likened it to ‘If something happened in London would that stop you from going to Skegness’,” he said. Thompson said he was reassured that the Bardo was a long way from Sousse and Thomson would not allow the couple to travel if there were safety concerns. He said the travel agent did recommend visiting the FCO website for advice, which the couple did, and were satisfied that as Sousse fell within the “green” area of the map it would be safe to go.

Thompson said that during a welcome meeting at the Imperial Marhaba a Tui representative said Tunisia was “100% safe”. Less than a day later Rezgui launched his attack, opening fire with an AK-47 assault rifle. “It was chaos,” Thompson said.

He told the inquests he would not have booked a holiday to Tunisia if he had been shown the specific advice about terrorism on the FCO website.

Howard Stevens QC, representing Tui, challenged Thompson’s statement about his conversation with Smallman. “I’m going to put it to you that you were not told by Amy Smallman that it was 100% safe. You hadn’t even decided where you were going.”

Thompson replied: “I’m 100% certain I was told it was 100% safe.”

Smallman, giving evidence in person, denied making the statement. Questioned by Samantha Leek QC, the counsel to the inquests, she said: “Nowhere is a 100% safe, I would never say that. That’s not something I would say.”

She said if she was asked about safety she would include it in her notes, which make no reference to such a conversation. However, she said she would not have made a reference in her notes to recommending a customer visits the FCO website.

Tracy Emery, who survived the attack along with her daughter, said she attempted to change the destination of her holiday after the Bardo attack but was told she would lose most of the money already spent on the trip. “I was told I was just outside the time limit to change country,” she said.

Emery told a call centre operator she was concerned about security but “no discussion” took place.

Earlier, the inquests heard that links to foreign advice on Tui websites “couldn’t be better hidden”.

Marc Worrall, Tui’s website manager, took the inquest through a typical online booking process on the company’s websites. Customers needed to pass through seven webpages to complete a booking and it was not until the last of these that a reference was made to visiting the FCO for “visas and travel advice”.

The reference to travel advice before the Sousse attack was under a header “important information” and appeared after the customer had chosen destination, hotel, flight and entered all personal details and payment. “It couldn’t be better hidden, could it?” Andrew Ritchie QC, representing the families of 20 victims, asked Worrall. “I couldn’t comment on that,” Worrall replied. “It’s a standard template used for all destinations.”

Commenting on the link, the coroner, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, said: “By the time the customer has got here they have made up their mind.

“The fact is the customer would have got this far before there is any suggestion he should go on the Foreign Office website and it’s only suggesting they should go there to do with visas and travel advice and nothing else.”

The inquests heard holidaymakers did not require a visa to travel to Tunisia. Customers booking their holiday through a travel agent, and not online, are not shown terms and conditions until they have paid their deposit, the court was told.