Gavin Tollman

Gavin Tollman was born in South Africa in 1963, and has spent the better part of his life working in and leading the local and global tourism industry. He lived in Washington DC, USA, and now resides in Geneva, Switzerland. He has a degree in finance from the American University.

Gavin Tollman’s twenty years of work in the travel industry have been spent developing and rolling out innovations within the touring experience. As a businessman he has turned Trafalgar, of which today he is the Chief Executive Officer, to one of the world’s leading escorted tour companies. Trafalgar offers unique tailored trips and holiday packages to a wide range of travel destinations.

Gavin Tollman joined Trafalgar Tours in 1997. As CEO he oversees the tour operator’s marketing, sales, product deliveries and operations. For a number of years prior to becoming CEO in May 2010, Gavin Tollman was the Global Head of Sales.

Under his stewardship, Trafalgar has been offering a broad range of local and international customized tour packages that cater to travelers who look to travel with more leisure and free time, and hassle. This innovative concept is at the heart of Gavin Tollman’s view of where the travel world is heading, based on his creed that the average traveler expects a more than average holiday experience.

Trafalgar Tours has been operating since 1947 and has recently become the biggest European tourism operator in the United States; it is part of the Tollman family owned travel group, The Travel Corporation.

Trafalgar’s intimate knowledge of countless travel destinations around the globe brings clients straight to the heart of each destination, thus preventing clients from wasting time, energy and money on preparations for their trip. The tour operators take care of all the travel details and itineraries and leave travelers with nothing to do but experience and explore their chosen destination. The tour company operates around the world, from South and North America, to Oceania, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and more.

As well as being experts in western travel markets, Trafalgar Tours is expanding its field of expertise to the rapidly enlarging Asian market. Gavin Tollman has done his homework and is becoming an expert in preparing tourism packages suited to the Asian traveler that take into account the varying complexities of that travel sector. He was one of the representatives from The Travel Corporation who has spent time in Asia meeting with its leaders in the travel industry from Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo where, through private engagements, meetings and social functions, they are cooperating in a mutual effort to promote Asian tourism.

As part of his commitment to maintain Trafalgars’ positions as a leader in the market, Gavin Tollman claims to have streamlined the company’s tours to what its customers want. He has positioned the company in keeping with a product line called The Insider, which aims at providing touring experiences that would be difficult for the individual tourist to reach independently.

Another recent addition to the group and its endeavors in the field of preservation, TTC has recently joined forces with the celebrated conservationist Celine Cousteau, who will play an active role in educating a new generation of travelers on environmental issues, with a particular emphasis on marine ecosystems.

As chairman of The Travel Corporation South Africa, Gavin Tollman supervises the group’s South African web strategy and its business development activities and operations. His main objective within this role is to identify business opportunities that could help The Travel Corporation grow even further.

In late 2010 Gavin Tollman participated in The Travel Corporation Global Conference that was held in Cape Town, South Africa. During this conference awards were handed out to The Travel Corporation’s employees who excelled in the past year. Around that time, The Travel Corporation gathered some of the group’s staff in order to build dozens of houses for disadvantaged South African township families through the nonprofit organization, Project Wendy House. This project is part of the ongoing attempts The Travel Corporation is making to improve the social situation and living conditions in the African country.

As far as hobbies are concerned, Gavin Tollman likes to play tennis, listen to music, practice yoga and watch films.