‘Travel advisor on the floor’, is the headline of the newspaper article that Laura van Haren (travel agency Traveltastic at TravelXL @Home) found last week during a clearance. Almost 30 years ago, she and her mother Marjan Lokhoff, who passed away a few years ago, started as the very first mobile travel advisor in the Netherlands. TravMagazine looks back with her. ‘I was in my early twenties and had just graduated in the travel industry. I had already applied to several travel agencies, but the lack of experience often played a part. At that time, there was an advertisement in the Telegraaf asking franchisees for Star Travel travel agencies. I had professional knowledge but didn’t know anything about running a business, so I told my mother. In addition to some part-time jobs within travel, she ran her own groundwork company with my stepfather. If she didn’t want to set up this travel agency together with me? A lot of doubts, but in the end we went for an interview together and she came back completely enthusiastic. “I’ll help you for the first few years and then you can move on yourself,” she said. 
But this was a brick-and-mortar travel agency? ‘That’s right, and that turned out to be a problem. I didn’t have a house or savings of my own, and without capital I couldn’t guarantee anything. Cor Stevens, founder of Star Travel, had an idea for this: the itinerant travel advisor, an idea that had just blown over from America. This way, the customer could book his trips from the comfort of their own home. ‘You are so motivated’, he said, ‘Would you like to start the pilot here?’ In March 1995, we officially started as the Netherlands’ first mobile travel advisors.’ ‘Because of the other company, there was a small office in our home where, if necessary, we could do something, but it had to be done mainly at people’s homes. The news spreads quickly in a village and eventually there were people at the door on Saturday mornings looking for ‘the new travel agency’. We just gave them a cup of coffee with the message that we would arrive in five minutes, haha.’
What were obstacles in those early days?” We were the very first so we didn’t really know what to expect. What we did run into is that we were viewed very suspiciously within the travel world. Both by the tour operators and existing travel agencies. There were, of course, Star Travel’s brick-and-mortar travel agencies, which had to pay for the rent of the building or the purchase of the computers. As a franchisee, you were eventually obliged to start a brick-and-mortar travel agency for a certain turnover, and we did that in 1998.’ How fast Followed others Your example? ‘Pretty fast. When Rabobank’s travel agencies closed around that time, many travel advisors also joined the mobile group. Companies such as Holland International and Arke were initially critical of it. ‘If it really worked, we would have started this a long time ago’. Looking back, I’m quite proud that my mother and I were real pioneers.’ And customers responded positively? ‘They really liked it! An entrepreneur you know from the village, the goodwill factor is just there. In those days, you still got those big, heavy binders with last minutes pressed into your hands at the travel agency… It was Star Travel’s local franchise approach that was incredibly successful.’ 
I suspect by now that your mother didn’t let it go after one or two years. ‘No, haha! He liked it way too much. The study trips, all the people around them. After the bankruptcy of the franchisor Star Travel, we switched to Holland International in 2007, but after the banking crisis and changes on a personal level, things became difficult. It became a bit monotonous and we could still earn a living with it, but no more toppings. In 2010 we closed the brick-and-mortar travel agency and I continued as a ZRA at The Travel Club, started working at a tour operator, and later at travel agencies in Aruba and Curaçao, where I lived with my family for several years. After return nevertheless weather effective as ZRA… ‘Of course, I knew a lot of colleagues from the travel agencies and that’s how I started as a self-employed person under TravelXL in Oss. In the meantime, the profession has changed. At the time, we really had to fight a losing battle, but with a lot of help from Star Travel. It’s all a bit more ‘pre-chewed’ now, without meaning it too negatively. Booking travel is still my great passion, but the real excitement of being self-employed has become a little less. In addition, you used to have slightly more ‘nice’, petty tour operators, so to speak. Nowadays everything is very grand.’
You also offer culinary tours. Is that a specialization?” I like everything and book everything. But I think good food is a very important part of the holiday and catering is related to the travel world for me. My company is called Traveltastic and my husband’s company is called Foodtastic. He’s a chef by profession and we sometimes try to combine that.’
What does that look like?
‘During the corona period, the travel industry and the hospitality industry came to a standstill, and I didn’t want to wait on the couch together. So what can we do? Well, I’m good at organizing, arranging and guest experience, and my husband is good at cooking and setting up events. If we were to rent a Ferris wheel and build a mini-private restaurant in each cabin, we would have the ‘Smakenrad’ (damn tasty)’. The wheel has been in Den Bosch, Groningen, Amsterdam, Breda and Enschede for months. Very nice, where we offered both lunches and dinners. Every now and then a star chef came to cook, in a very mobile kitchen behind the wheel. When people boarded, the pre-ordered starters and drinks were served, and in the gondola you could order extra by QR code, it was a monster operation!’ ‘The thirty years in the travel industry with all kinds of stops have brought me a lot, but sometimes I look around at what else could be done. It is precisely entrepreneurship, coming up with new ideas and also daring to take steps and implement them, that I find very important in my work.’
Finally, what is your best trip? Of course several, but the most special trip was with my mother. She was going through a divorce and I was also going through a very difficult period. I said, ‘Put me on the other side of the world.’ And that’s what we literally did, to Australia. With our suitcases and rental car we made a huge trip in six weeks. From Bangkok to Taipei, Sydney and all the other beautiful places in Australia.’ 
