General Information
 
A travel, tourism and hospitality expert, Brett Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation, utilizes his knowledge and gained experience in the industry to promote awareness to reaching and maintaining sustainable tourism practices that will help protect the environment, while still enabling access to “off the beaten path” destinations. The Travel Corporation is a unique enterprise of boutique hotels, international tour operators and destination travel services.

The Travel Corporation

As an employee of The Travel Corporation since the 1990’s, Brett Tollman has helped implement important changes to the international travel industry.  He is a founding member of the TTC’s Conservation Foundation, which promotes research and funding of projects to areas of the world that are culturally and ecologically vulnerable to destruction due to climate changes or extensive tourism.  He aims to put safer travel practices into place that will both protect the environment and strengthen those regions.  In addition, the TTC’s Conservation Foundation is an important partner in the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. The organization is another outlet through which the foundation can help raise awareness concerning environmental risks involved with tourism to destinations that need special protection. The annual awards are issued as part of the Global Travel and Tourism Summit that is held every year.

In the capacity of TTC’s CEO, Brett Tollman recently presented the president of Lion World Tours, Lucille Sive, with the first Mike Ness Award.  The award was created to recognize one executive in the company who regularly demonstrates a “can-do”, “get it done” mentality and success. 

To support tourism packages to South Africa, TTC held its 2010 Sales Conference in the South African city of Cape Town. The conference hosted about 350 tourism professionals from around the world in a weeklong series of tourism related events. The conference helped develop a strong alliance between TTC and the marketing and development of a new Destination South Africa package. The delegates had ample opportunity to learn about the unique tourism industry in South Africa as well as learning from hands-on experience when they participated in the building of more than 20 “Wendy Houses”. The small houses were given to their local communities at the conclusion of the conference.

Related Travel Experience

T-H Hotels was another one of the companies that employed Brett Tollman in the earlier days of his career. He was COO and president of the firm which encompassed more than 100 three star hotels in the US. In this capacity, he managed the 4,000 company employees and worked with the sales and marketing departments in addition to overseeing maintenance of the properties.

Personal

Brett Tollman was born in South Africa into a family already involved in the hotel industry for two generations. When it was time for Brett to head to college, he chose Cornell University in the US. He remained in the US after receiving his B.SC in hotel administration and currently makes his home in Los Angeles, California.

Outside interests include film, yoga and pilates, but Brett Tollman is also an avid reader and a talented photographer. He supports history through specialized charities and studies wildlife and international environmental protection methods and policies.

Brett Tollman, head of the global travel giant The Travel Corporation, gave his opinions on the year’s forecast for travel at a panel in Canberra, Australia. He spoke notably about the growing travel industry among the Chinese. He noted that the Chinese market is a fast evolving high-end market. Chinese tourists will pay thousands for safaris in Kenya, for example, so such targets would be smart for companies to think about. In general, he also noted that no single campaign should be invested in too much, but rather, companies should think about varying their approach. In general, he said, Australia needs to put itself more on the international radar for travel. 

2012 has already passed our doorstep, and along with it comes a wide selection of new travel opportunities. One of the year's highlights will occur in the upcoming summer, when the Olympics take place in London, United Kingdom. 
In this video, Brett Tollman discusses what the next year holds in store for us, including the likely effects of the global economic situation on our travel and vacation abilities. 

At its annual gathering in Tokyo on April 16-19, the World Travel & Tourism Council once again brings together the best and brightest of the global tourism industry. As Brett Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation and Vice Chairman of the WTTC, says it is a brilliant thing to bring these people together in a forum where they can discuss their successes and challenges. By 2020, tourism is likely to be one of the world’s most important industries. Professionals running the largest companies on the market gather to discuss ideas on how to better share between the public and private sectors, how to balance their business interests with those of preserving the local culture and environment and more.