JOURNEYS THAT MATTER
Brett Tollman, chief executive officer of The Travel Corporation, shares the allure of guided holidays and river cruising
For a company that owns over 30 of the most recognisable brands in the tourism and hospitality industry – think Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Contiki and Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection – and whose products have influenced the way we see and experience the world, most people have never heard of The Travel Corporation (TTC). Its chief executive officer, Brett Tollman, is unperturbed by the lack of recognition. “Our focus is all about each of the brands, not the holding company,” the 58-year-old explains. “Whether you are a millennial or Gen Z who is keen on Contiki holiday or a family-oriented consumer who sees the value of Trafalgar and Insight Vacations, we want you to engage with the brand of choice.”
Despite flying under the radar, there’s no discounting the fact that TTC is a significant player in the global travel industry – it serves almost two million travellers annually. Contiki specialises in group travel for the 18-35 age group. Trafalgar, the flagship brand of TTC and a leader in the guided holiday sector, is known for its cultural immersion trips. Insight Vacations attracts an older demographic with premium coaches and four- and five-star accommodations. The Red Carnation Hotel Collection features 19 luxury boutique hotels, ranging from the majestic Ashford Castle in Lough Corrib, Ireland, to Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve Wellness Retreat, nestled in the foothills of the Cederberg Mountains, South Africa. Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection
boasts 18 floating boutique hotels that sail in Central Europe, France, Russia and Egypt and more. Then there are other brands under the group’s umbrella, including AAT Kings, Destination America, Evan Evans Tours, Busabout and African Travel, catering to travellers with different budgets and interests.
With such a vast business portfolio and 40 sales offices around the world, it is not surprising that Brett, who is based in Los Angeles, is on the road most of the year. He was away for the whole of February and April and flew into Singapore in May for three days to attend the Skift Forum Asia 2019 – a Ted-style conference for the travel industry – as one of the keynote speakers. In between business meetings, he met with the media, including epicure.
We are having lunch at ATLAS restaurant in Parkview Square, the same building where TTC’S Singapore office is, and the man is visibly tired. The hospitality veteran with more than 35 years of experience, however, remains engaged and answers my questions judiciously, sharing where he thinks the guided holiday industry is headed, the allure of river cruising and the causes that are close to his heart.
IMPROVING THE GUIDED HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE
In spite of the increasing popularity of independent travel, guided holidays offered by Trafalgar and Insight Vacations continue to appeal to time-starved travellers who want a hassle-free experience, curated experiences and a chance to meet like-minded travellers from other countries within a group setting of 30 to 40 people or less.
In 2009, sensing a growth in food tourism, Trafalgar launched a Be My Guest programme where guests can immerse themselves in the destination of their choice. “You could visit a lemon grove in Sorrento, meet the owner, join him to prepare dinner, sit overlooking the Bay of Naples, and let the owner’s family tell you what life is like growing lemons in that part of the world,” shares Brett, a self-confessed avid cook who owns over 1,000 cookbooks.
Four years ago, TTC launched Luxury Gold, an ultra-premium guided holiday brand to target a niche market of affluent travellers. Each group size is kept to a maximum of 24 people. Guests stay at more upscale hotels, including some properties from The Red Carnation Hotel Collection. Some of the itineraries are curated by Brett’s father, Stanley, the chairman of TTC, and include exclusive experiences like an after-hours tour of the royal palace in Austria.
TTC has also invested millions of dollars in technology as a key enabler in the growth of its business, including a travel portal where guests receive trip information on their tablets or
smartphones and are encouraged to take notes during the journey. A chat function system is set to launch next year, which will allow guests to interact more closely with their appointed travel director and fellow travellers.
What Brett says he is proud of is the quality of his core team of travel directors from Trafalgar, Costsaver and Luxury Gold and trip managers from Contiki. “Each year, we conduct an expensive one-week training trip, when we take 50 travel directors and have them travel as our guests,” he shares. It puts the travel directors in their guests’ shoes where they observe potential hiccups that can occur during the journey, such as an unexpected traffic jam or a restaurant reservation that can go wrong.
SET SAIL ON BOUTIQUE FLOATING HOTELS
Brett is of the firm view that there’s no cruise experience like river cruising; after all, it represents the best of cruising shrunk into a very intimate experience on super smooth waters. “On a Uniworld river cruise, you are travelling with 100-150 people, not 5,000 passengers on an ocean liner,” he stresses. Most river cruise operators, he reveals, do not employ their own staff as they charter through third party services. Ninety three percent of Uniworld staff return season after season, thereby ensuring a level of “high touch and intimate service”.
To cater to rising demand for river cruising, especially from Asia, Uniworld’s fleet of ships like S.S. Bon Voyage and S.S. La Venezia is currently undergoing renovation. New ships are being built at the moment in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Russia and Portugal and will be launched within the next two years.
SUSTAINABILITY & THE PAUL NEWMAN CONNECTION
Brett is enthusiastic when I ask him about the group’s corporate social responsibility initiatives, emphasising TTC’S contribution through the Threadright foundation, which was founded in 2008. The foundation’s steering committee funds a variety of projects under three pillars: People, Wildlife and Planet. Interestingly, he credits his passion for sustainability to Paul Newman, sparked by a interview he watched when he was eight years ago, on the late actor’s home recycling efforts and the wilderness safari trips he had organised for underprivileged children in America to experience nature.
“That inspired us to do a similar programme where we take children from South Africa, Zambia and Botswana on camping trips for a week to experience wildlife and even encourage some of them to become game rangers,” Brett adds, his eyes softening. The foundation has also supported other successful micro projects, such as the drive to preserve the nearly-extinct cape leopards in South Africa and improve the livelihood of 150 spinsters in Jordan by setting up a gift shop so they can sell pottery items, rugs and paper cards to travellers.
“It’s all part of being a responsible, engaged and caring company, a global citizen,” he adds.
“Our people are our loyalty programme. The money other hotels spend on loyalty programmes, we use it to employ more staff to provide better service. Loyalty is having an incredible experience that you want to come back for, not because you have 1,000 reward points and can get a room upgrade or score a free night’s stay.”
TALK THE TALK, WALK THE WALK
Despite operating in 70 countries, TTC remains a family business that is now in its fourth generation The company was founded by Stanley, whose parents owned a hotel and restaurant near Cape Town; Stanley continued to build and reinvest the family business into a worldwide travel company. Brett’s mother, Beatrice, who was recently inducted into the British Travel and Hospitality Hall of Fame, is the president and founder of The Red Carnation Hotel Collection. Brett’s cousin, Gavin, is the chief executive officer of Trafalgar, while his two sisters, Toni and Vicki, also work for the group.
A privately held company devoid of debt has its advantages, chief of which Brett stresses is the presence of a more purposedriven and service-oriented working culture where staff can thrive and feel valued. I ask him how The Red Carnation Hotel Collection ensures that happy employees make happy guests and he replies that TTC takes a long term view to businesses so there’s less pressure on immediate financial results. “We are usually adding employees not reducing, so there isn’t the stress of having staff clean an extra two rooms. When we bought Ashford Castle, there were 120 people working there. Today, there are 450. We invest heavily in our staff and they see that.”
Every March, over 800 employees from the hotels and their spouses or friends are invited to London where they will be feted for their performance at a glamorous appreciation party. Beatrice keeps a detailed staff database and personally chooses Christmas gifts for 4,000 employees every year, an exercise that begins as early as January.
The Red Carnation Hotel Collection also runs an 18-month management programme where employees are required to work in different departments. Brett cites the example of one of his executive chefs, Kevin Joseph. When The Oyster Box in Durban, South Africa, where Joseph was working at, closed for a massive rebuild in 2008, he was sent to train at Raffles Singapore for one month.
Leaders are held to even higher standards: for one day every year, every member of management is required to work in housekeeping or in the kitchen to stay connected with ground staff and guests. No one, Brett says proudly, espouses the hospitality ethos more than Beatrice. “Every day, each general manager sends her a five- to 10-page report on what goes on in each hotel as well as the guest arrivals. When something goes wrong, she gets hold of the general manager and tries to resolve it. We always believe that when you have to apologise afterwards it’s a bit too late; if you can address it while the guest is still staying at the hotel, nine out of 10 times you can fix it. It’s what she calls the Tiny Noticeable Touches,” he shares.
There are a lot of high brow comments made by companies about the importance teamwork and staff satisfaction, but employees learn the best corporate practices when their managers lead by example. Fortunately, walking the talk, as I discover at the end of my two-hour lunch with Brett, is not something TTC pays lip service to.