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New tour group is unprecedented
In what they call an unprecedented collaboration, five of the US’s top tour operators agreed to co-promote a series of departure tours to North America and the world.
“This is not a merger,” said Jerry DePietro, TOURCO president. He added:
”We are taking the best of each company’s tour offerings, and bringing to the market an attractive mix of tours and cruises throughout the US, Canada and the Caribbean — even Europe, Central America and China.”
Each individual company has contributed five or six itineraries with guaranteed departures, he said, lowering exposure and risks.
“”A year of planning has gone into this,” said Bob Hoelscher, president of flemming tours and cruises. He added:
“We have seen some major travel industry consolidation efforts fail over the past several years, and we wanted to ensure that we didn’t travel the same path.”
The companies worked for months to establish required standards for all the various tours, which include commission structures for agents and incentives for group leaders and others.
The new entry is called Encompass Tours and Cruises.
In addition to Mr Hoelscher’s St. Louis-based company and the Maine-based TOURCO, the three other partners are Incredible Journeys of San Antonio, TX, Main Street Tours of Torrance, CA, and Pacific Northwest Tours of Seattle, WA.
The group plans to launch a Web site and attend group leader shows in the next few weeks.
Report by David Wilkening
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