Harry Dalgaard has been in the travel business all his life. He was
born in Norway and his father was in the airline business. As a
child he lived in Norway, Sweden, Italy and England.
In 1981, Dalgaard founded Avanti Destinations as a regional
wholesaler specializing in Europe. In 1990, the company expanded
into Latin America. Avanti not only grew as a regional player in
the Northwest, it grew in California and pretty well west of the
Mississippi. Dalgaard merged Avanti into the Rail Europe Group in
New York in 1990. Six years later they de-merged, and he got the
company back in September of 2006. Throughout its more than 30-year
history, FIT travel has always been a main focus of the
company.
Q: Did you see a need for FIT travel in the market when you
started Avanti?
A: Yes. I guess you sort of focus on the product that you are most
comfortable doing yourself, and that is what I had experience with.
Right now I am catering to baby boomers. That’s my age, I am 58. I
try and sell travel, that I enjoy doing myself, and I think once
you are aligned with that understanding and the needs of the
traveler and can deliver that, then it’s a good win-win situation.
A lot of my time is spent picking the right suppliers or
destination management companies that understand what the American
independent traveler is looking for and can provide it.
Q: A great deal of your focus is to make it easy for agents to
book FIT. How do you achieve that?
A:We narrow down the product. If you go to London there are
thousands of hotels. We try and pick European-style hotels first,
and then limit the number to maybe 25 hand-picked hotels from
different star and rating categories. That makes it easier for
agents, so they don’t have to sift through a ton of three- or
four-star properties. We’ve done the leg work. We also have a Web
site that allows people to check real-time pricing and
availability, and if they want to book it on their travel agent Web
site they are more than welcome to do that.
I think the fact that it is one-stop service is convenient for
agents we book air, hotel, rail, private transport, sightseeing
tours, its all one source. I think that is the greatest evolution
that has gone on, that we have gone from where products were
cherry-picked to providing the “full monty,” booking the whole
vacation.
Q: What features are available to make these vacations more unique
than just booking on your own?
A: Well, first of all, the most sensitive issue for travelers, at
least American travelers, is not money or access, its time
management. Americans don’t have much time. So, if you go on your
own you have to do a lot of searching and you’re not quite sure if
it has been vetted, if someone’s made sure this cooking program is
for real, etc. We are vetting the product for them, and I think we
do a pretty good j
