Liberty Travel is a retail travel and cruise company headquartered at 5 Paragon Drive in
Montvale, New Jersey
Montvale is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 7,844, In 2016, Liberty Travel had over 125 stores in 14 states, and a total of 2,200 employees. Today, Liberty Travel has 4 stores.
Liberty Travel is a sister company of GOGO Worldwide Vacations, which markets vacation packages wholesale to independent retail travel agencies.
In 2008, Flight Centre Ltd., the largest travel company in Australia, acquired Liberty Travel and GOGO for $135 million.
History
Liberty Travel was co-founded in 1951 by Fred Kassner and Gilbert Haroche,
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
classmates who started as a two-man operation in New York City. Initially, they focused on travel to the
Catskills
The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas cl ...
and
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
. They offered vacation packages intended to be affordable to the general public.
Gilbert Haroche has been called the originator of the package vacation with the company's "deluxe economy package" offered in the early 1950s. Thereafter new destinations were added one by one and the concept took off alongside the age of jet travel. Haroche expanded the stores and became responsible for the retail side of the business (Liberty Travel) whereas Fred Kassner, his founding partner, became responsible for the wholesale business, Gogo Tours, which sold packages to agencies. Notable Alumni : Steven E. Heydt.
As of 1998, Liberty Travel had 200 stores in the
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...
and
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, and was the largest privately owned leisure travel chain in the U.S., with over one million customers annually.
Liberty Travel was featured on ABC's
Nightline
''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...
in September 2011 on the subject of Travel Agencies and how this business model is still relevant to today's travelers.
In May 2012, Emma Jupp came on as Liberty Travel's CEO.
In 2012, they opened a flagship store on
Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stre ...
in New York City, with plans to open ten more similar storefronts as large as around the United States in the next five years.
In 2013, they partnered with USA Today on the publication's yearly 10Best award in travel.
In February 2018, Liberty Travel launched new “Home-Based” Travel Agent Brand to give travel
consultant
A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization.
Consulting servic ...