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Show Travel agencies combine for best of both worlds p.. XXJ-1I.UJIII1IM1 t r - f"" ' ss, J ' ' ' ' ' f V ' - , -t I t -1 f- I f f i 1 V I v 1 1 Three of the best known names in travel, Faldmo Tours, Morris Travel and Ask Mr. Foster Travel, have recently teamed up to bring South Davis residents added services ser-vices and values. Four years ago Faldmo Tours and Travel, which had done business busi-ness in Bountiful for 20 years, formed the Travel Express Corporation, Corpor-ation, along with five other Utah agencies. They became Utah's third largest agency. This agency then became a franchise of and did business under the name of Ask Mr. Foster Travel, North America's Amer-ica's largest travel agency. Last year the Ask Mr. Foster offices in Utah merged with Morris Travel, the state's largest agency. The merger created one of the strongest travel agencies in the nation, na-tion, with sales of $100 million and 20 offices throughout the state. The previous owners of the two corporations corpor-ations retained ownership in the new company bringing the advantage advan-tage of local management with the benefits of added services and products. pro-ducts. The new corporation was named "Morris-Ask Mr. Foster Travel." Faldmo Tours has operated escorted group tours worldwide from Bountiful for nearly 25 years. The Faldmo Tours operation will still be operatead from Bountiful and the products of Morris Air Service Ser-vice and Ask Mr. Foster Travel will also be sold from the Bountiful location. Because both companies had offices in many of the same cities, a step by step plan was implemented to combine offices. On March 21 the Bountiful offices were combined. com-bined. The combined location is at the Faldmo location, 88 W. 500 S., Bountiful. Dorothy Hadden, a long time Bountiful resident who had managed the Morris Travel office in Bountiful, recently opened and is managing the new downtown Salt Lake office for Morris-Ask Mr. Foster Travel. Donna Culli-more Culli-more of Centerville is manager of the Bountiful office. Although the new company is headquartered in Salt Lake City, several of the officers have ties to this area. Rick Frendt, a former resident of Bountiful, is the presi dent of the company. Mark Faldmo from Bountiful, now living in Farmington, is executive vice president pres-ident of operations and Randy Hunt, Farmington, is executive vice president of corporate sales and service. Many people are curious about the Ask Mr. Foster name. There really was a "Mr. Foster." Ward Foster, an insatiable traveler, founded one of America's first travel agencies exactly 100 years ago in St. Petersburg, Fla. Because Foster had been everywhere people peo-ple who wanted to know anything about travel would "Ask Mr. Foster." The name stuck and Foster's modest gift shop turned into one of America's first travel agencies that grew into America's first travel agency chain. A century later, with sales approaching $3 billion dollars, dol-lars, and offices numbering nearly 500, Ask Mr. Foster Travel has laid claim to being the largest agency in North America. Although most of Ask Mr. Foster's offices are corpo-rately corpo-rately owned, they have a franchise franch-ise program which includes some of the strongest independent agencies agen-cies in the country. Morris-Ask Mr. Foster is one of those agencies. agen-cies. Mark Faldmo stated "This brings the best of both worlds strong national purchasing power and affiliation with local ownership and management." Faldmo concluded, "We hope the public is patient when we answer the phone. We have combined com-bined all three names, and while the length of it is rather formidable, all three are very important." To celebrate this merger tickets were given away to the following: One round trip ticket to Los Angeles, Gloria Moore, Gerry Turner, Tur-ner, Dorothy Bigham and Geral-dine Geral-dine Peterson. Roundtrip ticket to Oakland, Diane Di-ane Bachman, Margo Turner, Mar-lene Mar-lene Simms, Grace E. Hendrick-son, Hendrick-son, Edwin Wood, Mike Carey, Carolyn Sukhan, Dorathy Ellwan-ger, Ellwan-ger, Spencer Garner and Dortha Smith. One week for two to Mazatlan, Susan Peterson; one week for two to Hawaii, Susan Mittelstaeat. Donna Cullimore (left) and Mark Faldmo present prizes to Susan Peterson, winner of Mazatlan trip and Susan Mittel-staedt, Mittel-staedt, winner of Hawaii trip. |
