When looking back at the 50th anniversary of Panta Reizen in Rotterdam, two storylines are intertwined.
That of Panta Reizen itself and of the new owners, Oscar Huls and Peter Hilbers of Smart Business Travel.
Together with Peter van Vliet, the former owner who retired in September last year, Oscar Huls looks back. The well-known travel agency in the IJsselmonde district in Rotterdam-South is the backdrop for the conversation about 50 years of Panta Reizen.
Behind the low-rise building in the distance, the roof of the apartment building is just visible, where the logo of Panta Reizen could be seen for years, as a beacon for motorists on their way to the A15.
Oscar Huls, who, together with his business partner Peter Hilbers, now owns Panta Business Travel and VakantieXperts Panta Reizen, is the one point of contact.
The other is former owner Peter van Vliet, who has returned to his former office for the occasion and despite his retirement.
Expressed in terms of years of service, he has the most right to speak when looking back on half a century of Rotterdam’s travel history. City Specialist At the same location on the edge of a shopping centre, José Kreijman started the travel and passage agency Panta in 1974.
Four years later, in 1978, Peter van Vliet joined the company.
His more than 45-year career in the travel industry runs parallel to the development of Panta.
When Panta Travel acquired its own IATA license in 1982, it also started selling business travel.
Later, city trips were added, with which Panta Reizen developed into a multi-award-winning city specialist.
One after the other Veer, the predecessor of TravMagazine’s Holiday Awards, was brought in.
The city branch was later sold to Sunair.
‘When selling holiday trips, it’s hard work for a small return’
‘Panta Reizen was also a strong brand as a city specialist,’ says Van Vliet.
‘You didn’t have a Booking.com back then. Not only everyone from the region who wanted to make a city trip came to us, the Panta City Tours were sold by (almost) all travel agencies in the Netherlands. In many cases, it was a package holiday with KLM from Rotterdam Airport, then called Zestienhoven.’ Surprise After a few years, founder Kreijman sold 49 percent of his shares to Holland International, which would later merge into TUI.
A few years later, he sold the remaining 51 percent, also to TUI, which had a series of specialists at the time.
TUI Netherlands sold Panta Reizen in 2006 to René Klawer’s Travel Specialists Group, which acquired TUI’s specialists in that year, together with Zeetours, GI Travel and Holland Destination Management, among others.
The status quo remained in place until 2018.
In that year, Van Vliet did a management buy-out of Panta Reizen as director, acquiring both the travel agency and the business travel branch.
And so, at the age of 62, he was still an independent travel entrepreneur.
Two years later, in January 2020, Van Vliet sold the business travel branch to Smart Business Travel, led by owners Oscar Huls and Peter Hilbers, who were still affiliated with Uniglobe at the time.
The sale came as a surprise to many, especially since Van Vliet had only been the owner of Panta Reizen for a short time. Accident Van Vliet: ‘I was a small self-employed person in the field of business travel and had been looking for cooperation for some time. When it comes to business travel, it’s a delicate matter, because one customer means a lot of turnover. To do it right, I would have to set up a sales department and things like that.’ As is so often the case, chance played a role in the creation of the sale.
Peter van Vliet and Oscar Huls met at a Sunny Cars event, where they shared the same rental car.
Van Vliet: ‘One thing led to another. The move gave me a certain peace of mind, also because of the knowledge that my employees were working for a good company.’ Initially, Van Vliet continued with Panta Travel Agency, which is located in the same building as the business travel branch and with which he had meanwhile joined VakantieXperts.
Not much later, in December 2022, Van Vliet also sold the travel agency to Huls and Hilbers. Business travel That was indeed in the middle of the corona period, Oscar Huls admits looking back. ‘But we had agreed on the purchase of Panta travel agency with Peter and for us, a deal is a deal.’ Oscar Huls moved from the logistics world to the business travel sector. ‘From the taxi world, I offered transport to business travellers. At one point I was asked by customers if I could book a flight and hotel for them as well. In 2010, together with Peter Hilbers, I started Easy Travel in Uden, then through Uniglobe.’ In 2018, Huls and Hilbers took over Uniglobe colleague Smart Business Travel, which once belonged to Marleen and Annet van Dam, who had previously transferred their company to Jacco Methorst and Frank van Grieken. The acquisition included all offices. 
A nice mix of experienced and younger employees, says Hilbers.
‘We don’t have a staff shortage at the moment, but we will continue to look around. Important positions are filled internally at our company. That’s good for us and it’s an extra challenge for our employees.’ In-house knowledge The travel agency under the name VakantieXperts Panta Reizen, still located in the same building as the business travel department, has eight employees.
When asked about his first experiences with the leisure segment, business travel expert Huls says: ‘To be honest, I don’t understand it. As an employee of a travel agency, you need to have so much knowledge in-house. As an America specialist, for example, you need to know a lot, much more than the customer himself. The knowledge level of our employees is very high. They know everything about package holidays, cruises, car holidays. When it comes to selling holiday trips, it’s hard work for a small return.’
‘To be honest, I don’t understand the leisure segment’
Selling business trips is easier for him, Huls acknowledges.
‘Of course, that’s also the segment that Peter Hilbers and I started with. Our business customers are medium-sized and large SMEs. This includes the Visma team, both the speed skating and the cycling team. Roughly speaking, you can say that our customers spend more than 50,000 euros a year on business travel.’ At VakantieXperts Panta Reizen, the clientele consists of a mix of families, couples and entrepreneurs who, in addition to their business trip, also book their holiday at the same address. Ambition Huls and Hilbers don’t like to sit still.
The duo has more than enough ambition to grow further.
For example, Uniglobe Attent Business Travel in Amsterdam was recently acquired.
With this, they are steadily building their business travel segment.
For Oscar Huls, the 50th anniversary of Panta Travel is not the only anniversary this year, because Smart Business Travel will also celebrate an anniversary in 2024, namely its 25th anniversary.
And then the final question to Peter van Vliet, who has spent almost his entire working life in the travel industry at Panta Reizen.
What has stayed with him most from all these years?
Van Vliet: ‘In any case, there have been many different owners. But it’s never been boring in all those years. Every day was different. Panta Reizen was my passion and my life, but you have to retire at some point. I helped with the transfer here for a few months until the beginning of the year, but on my last day of work, I had all my login details removed from the system. It’s been nice.’ Oscar Huls has no regrets about the acquisition of Panta Reizen, he says when asked.
‘They are two great companies, with business travel and leisure at one address. And I like the Rotterdam way of working. I myself come from the east of the country. When they say ‘yes’ to you there, they actually mean ‘no’.
Rotterdammers are more direct.
You can disagree with each other a lot, maybe even have an argument, but afterwards they say: ‘Come on, let’s have a beer.’
