PAWTUCKET – Collette Travel Service Inc., the family-owned parent of global travel firm Collette Vacations, said Thursday its total “passengers under deposit” for travel planned from May through December is up 41 percent compared with last year.
The upswing in travel is due in part to an increase in consumer confidence, according to Collette spokeswoman Melissa McKee. “We depend on people spending their discretionary dollars,” she said.
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McKee also attributed the turnaround at Collette to its partnerships with the Smithsonian and AAA – and Collette’s personalized service, including picking up customers in a limousine and providing free door-to-door service between home and the airport. “It often clinches the sale,” she said.
“We stand a pretty good chance of having our best year ever,” Chief Financial Officer John Galvin told Travel Weekly in its Feb. 2 issue.
Collette, which operates 125 tours to all seven continents, said this year’s sales may exceed by up to 5 percent the record set in 2008, when Collette’s revenue totaled $180 million.
The resurgence in travel has enabled Collette, which laid off 40 staff members in January 2009, about 9 percent of its global workforce, to rehire 25 employees, with another 13 positions still open, according to McKee.
