PHOTO: Guy Young (left) and Richard Launder at the new Travel Corporation office on Fifth Avenue in New York City. (Photo courtesy The Travel Corporation)
When Stanley Tollman makes a decision, it doesn't take long for it to be implemented into action.
Tollman, who founded Trafalgar Tours in 1947 and built up a company that today includes Insight Vacations, Contiki, African Travel, Red Carnation Hotels and other brands, visited his U.S. operations in Anaheim, Calif., for a strategic session last Sept. 16.
At the meeting, Tollman came to a quick assessment that the company was underperforming in the eastern part of the country. Now, as a result of that assessment, in early February the Travel Corporation will open a new office in New York City.
The Travel Corporation is an international company with headquarters in London and Geneva, as well as offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, from which it runs its U.S. operations. In earlier times, Insight Vacations had an office in Boston. Trafalgar had an office in Manhattan. Later both Insight and Trafalgar moved to an office in Long Island City, New York. But in 2003, they were all consolidated on the West Coast in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Even before reviewing the sales figures, Stanley Tollman had "an innate sense" that the company needed to expand its East Coast sales operations, Young said.
"We were having the strategic sales meeting," said Young. "Mr. Tollman was there. Brett [Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation], Gavin [Tollman, CEO of Trafalgar Tours] and a lot of our U.S.A. executives were at the meeting, and Mr. Tollman had an innate sense that we weren't getting enough business from the east coast. Most of our executives are on the West Coast. We've got most of our offices and call centers there. We do have a small office in Rye [New York]. But most everyone is on the west coast and he sensed that we've become a very West Coast-centric company.
"We were having the conversation and over lunch," said Young. "He pulled me aside and said, 'Guy, listen, I think this is a great opportunity. It's very exciting. I'd like you to think about it. I think you'd be great for the role. I'd love you to lead opening the office and building up the team on the East Coast.'"
Young said, "It sounds great, let me think about it."
At the end of the meeting, when Tollman was giving his recap, he announced to the group, "We're going to open up the office in New York and Guy's going to lead the effort."
"When I came back to my office he asked me to run some data to see where we wanted to put the new sales managers and he was absolutely right," said Young. "I got all the agency lists from the consortia and laid out the agencies in each state, and then overlaid the amount of business The Travel Corporation was getting from those particular states. And there were 14 states where we were under-penetrating. And 12 of those 14 states were east of the Mississippi."
The New York office will be at 589 Fifth Avenue, near 48th Street. It will be headed by Guy Young, former president of Uniworld, the Travel Corporation's river cruise operator. Young will oversee the New York office as chief engagement officer.
The Travel Corporation is beefing up is field sales force with the addition of 18 new district sales managers to expand its coverage of the region. It's a 30 percent increase.
Young joined the Travel Corporation in 2000. He was put in charge of the Toronto office as president of Trafalgar Canada. Then in 2006 he was made chief executive officer of Uniworld.
Richard Launder will continue as president of TTC USA working from the Anaheim office.
"What we are doing is are re-establishing our presence back east," said Launder. "Through all these advisory board meetings we've been told by our travel agency partners that they want more frequent visits. So we're really delivering on their request by having Guy come over and run this office, and by hiring that many additional sales managers, which gives us so much more coverage."
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