50 Years in Travel with the Andersons

In many ways the story of the Anderson family mirrors the history of the travel agency distribution system in the United States.

The Andersons, owners of host agency Avoya Travel, on Jan. 15 celebrated 50 years in the travel industry by honoring Pal and Pat Anderson, the patriarch and matriarch, respectively, of their travel agency business. The family hosted a gala evening at the Sheraton Carlsbad, not far from Avoya’s operations center in a small mall in Vista, Calif.

I was lucky enough to join the Andersons in their celebration and reflect on their story, which to me both proves the validity of the travel agency business and its success in the future.

Unlike many in the travel agency businesses, the Andersons are now into their third generation owning and operating an agency, though they have significantly altered and continue to evolve that business so it no longer looks much like what they started in 1964.

Pal Anderson, now 92, got into the agency business like many others because of his passion for travel. He was a Chrysler dealer working in eastern Washington, but he really liked traveling to Hawaii. Indeed, he enjoyed the islands so much so that in the early 1960s he moved his family, which included his wife Pat, now 89, and their two sons, Van and Brad, to Oahu.

Van Anderson tells the story of how he and his brother thought they were just going on vacation to Hawaii when they left Washington. When informed that they were there to stay, Brad, the younger brother, demanded to be returned to his "home" state. Pal stuck him in a taxi and told the driver to head to the airport. Brad cried so much that the driver eventually returned him home to his parents, which had been Pal’s plan all along.

Pal got into travel by buying Hawaiian Paradise Tours, a wholesaler to the islands. He had a good business but his wanderlust continued. He decided to move the family to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they lived for a time on a rustic ranch just outside of town. Van and Brad went to local schools where they had to learn Spanish to keep up with their fellow students.

Then, according to Brad, Pal decided Australia might be a good place to relocated. He took the family back to the San Diego area in preparation for the major move Down Under. But because his two sons were still in school, he decided to stay until the end of the school year. The family never got to Australia.

Indeed, Pal decided to launch a travel agency, Pal Anderson Travel, which sold mostly leisure travel. Van and Brad joined their parents in the business when they got older. Meanwhile, they continued to enjoy the nomadic life of their father, taking long trips across the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, and sometimes leaving Pat behind to run the agency on her own.

PHOTO: The Anderson family, owners of Avoya Travel, celebrate their golden anniversary in travel. (Photo by James Shillinglaw)

The family's agency grew, added locations in the San Diego area, and changed its name first to Anderson Cruises & Travel and then to Anderson Travel. It grew into a full-service travel shop, selling both corporate and leisure travel, which was and continues to be affiliated with American Express.

Indeed, back in the late 1990s, when I was looking for strong, growth-oriented family-run travel agencies to write about, I almost did a cover story on the Andersons and their agency. I can't even remember why that never happened.

In some ways, I'm glad the story didn't run, because there was much more change to come. Van and Brad eventually took over their parents' agency, and decided to go in a very, very different direction.

In the early 2000s, they closed most of their agency's physical locations and decided to work strictly through independent contractors. They also made the decision to sell their corporate business and focus almost completely on cruise sales. They also renamed their agency American’s Vacation Center (AVC).

In those days, home-based agents or independent contractors weren’t quite the phenomenon they are today, but many travel suppliers, especially cruise lines, were seeking to better understand the sales power these agents had in the market. By focusing the power of independent contractors (or independent affiliates in Avoya speak), the Andersons were at the cutting edge of a new form of agency—the host—and a new way of marketing travel.

Over the last decade AVC, which was renamed Avoya Travel in 2010 to better capitalize on international business, has become a cruise-selling powerhouse, widely recognized as a top selling agency group by major cruise lines. Avoya also began selling other leisure products, such as tours, wholesale packages, resorts and even air.

The agency’s base of operations in Vista has some 150 staffers, most of them under 30, who serve as a support team for well over 500 independent affiliates. That team provides all marketing support, in the form of Avoya’s patented “Live Leads” program, which finds customers who are ready to buy specific travel products and routes them to the independent affiliate who specializes in that particular product.

There are now five Andersons still working at the agency: Brad and Van, who remain as co-presidents; Brad’s sons, Jeff and Mike, newly promoted to executive vice president; and Brad’s daughter, Bethany, who works in sales support and development.

Indeed, the Anderson family has been at the forefront of the home-based agent movement, which now represents roughly half of all travel agents in the market. It also has been one of the most successful host agencies in the business.

For the past 50 years the Andersons have mirrored the transformation of the travel agency distribution system—from wholesaler to full-service agency to host agency. And now they are about to embark on their next 50 years. Where that journey will take them is anybody’s guess, but it’s my belief they will remain at the forefront of any change in the travel distribution system. 

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