Dear Traveler,

In my life, love and travel have long been – and always will be – inseparable.  I will never forget the night I first discovered this, nor will I forget where that evening began – the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga, outside of Durban, South Africa.

It was July of 1952 – the middle of winter in South Africa, though mild on the east coast due to the ocean breezes – and I was 21 years old. I had made plans to drive from Johannesburg to meet up with friends at the Durban July Handicap, South Africa’s premier horse race.  I was pleased to learn that Beatrice Lurie was also to be traveling to Durban to play in the Natal Tennis Championship, and even more delighted when she asked for a ride. Bea and I had dated a few times and become good friends.  I was delighted to have her company in the car, but we ended up giving a ride to a friend of Bea’s as well. The two sat in the back seat talking non-stop for the entire seven hours of the drive, relegating me to play the role of silent chauffeur for what seemed like the longest seven hours of my life.

Upon arriving in Durban, Bea announced the discipline she imposed on her schedule while playing in a tournament: Absolutely no socializing.  I was to be on my own.  That might well have been the last we saw of one another in Durban, but for a twist I now consider to be divine intervention; Bea pulled a muscle in her back which, while not serious, forced her to withdraw from the tournament.

Seeing my opportunity, I asked her out for that evening – alone – to the famed Oyster Box Restaurant, which had an elegant ambiance of times gone by, an Anglo-Indian outpost set on the coast of South Africa that served the finest oysters to be found anywhere.  Wanting to impress Bea, I dressed my best, with a red carnation in my lapel, and arranged to have the maître d’ seat us at the finest table in the house – number five – the place to see and be seen.

Bea admitted that she’d never before tasted oysters, but I persuaded her to order a half-dozen.  She tasted one and – under the watchful eye of our fellow diners – promptly spat it out onto the floor. It was hardly an auspicious beginning.

Later that evening, however, we found ourselves back in Durban, sitting astride a fence on a hill above a beach, laughing and telling jokes.  One of my favorite jokes called for a theatrical gesture, but while waving my arms I lost my balance, toppling over, tumbling down the sandy bank and landing in a crumpled heap on the shore.  As I tried to recover my composure and dignity, I realised Bea was laughing hysterically.

There is no doubt that this is the moment where it all began.

When people talk of “falling in love,” they are generally speaking metaphorically.  For me, the tumble was quite literal.  That night and those that followed, I came to realize what a magnificent woman Bea was – despite her distaste for Oysters.  Though I was on the verge of dropping out of pharmaceutical college with no feasible way of making a living, I shared my dreams with her, and she shared hers with me.  They were wild, audacious dreams of a life filled with adventures and travel to the most amazing destinations in the world, opening fantastic restaurants and running the world’s finest hotels – including, someday, the Oyster Box.

Even now, sixty-eight years later, I feel as though we are still on that first date.  The dreams we shared on that beach have become The Travel Corporation you know today, which I am deeply honored to serve as Chairman. We were married on March 7, 1954 – next month we will celebrate our 66^th anniversary.  I am grateful every day to have found such a beautiful, inspiring, and capable woman as my partner, in both life and work.

I am, indeed, a lucky man.

It was fifty four years after that meal, in 2006, that we were entrusted with the opportunity to purchase The Oyster Box Hotel. By then it had fallen into disrepair and was in desperate need of remodeling. With Bea’s inspiration and guidance, our daughter, Toni, a brilliant architect, oversaw the renovation. In 2009 we welcomed nine hundred guests to the grand re-opening of the Oyster Box Hotel, conducted by none other than the Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini.  Today, The Oyster Box is consistently recognized as one of the finest hotels in South Africa.  It is one of 19 – soon to be twenty! –  Red Carnation Hotels, over which Bea serves as Founder and President, bringing her extraordinary vision, culinary genius, and her incomparable attention to those tiny noticeable touches that make guests feel truly welcome.  I believe these are the finest boutique hotels to be found anywhere in the world – at least on land. I must add those words because Bea is also the guiding visionary behind Uniworld River Cruises, each ship a floating boutique hotel which, through her efforts, are as magnificently apportioned and welcoming as those of Red Carnation.  As if that is not enough, it was Bea’s spirit and our shared love of travel that led me to found TTC’s newest brand, Luxury Gold.  Through its truly immersive and exclusive experiences, it offers travelers the opportunity to visit the places and people that Bea and I have come to know and love over the years, all in magnificent style, bringing back the golden era of travel.

Knowing Bea as I do, none of these accomplishments are surprising.  What is, perhaps, a little surprising, is the fact that she has come to love oysters.

This Valentine’s Day, it gives Bea and myself tremendous joy to know how our love has brought together so many other couples.  We think of the many TTC employees who have found their life partners while working in our family of brands, and of the countless travelers who have found love while on holiday with us.  More than anything, we are grateful for our family, carrying our dreams into the future as we embark on TTC’s second century.

Wonderful as it is to have a day devoted to romance, Bea and I believe love is something to celebrate day in and day out, all year long.  There is no better Valentine’s Day gift you can give yourself and each other than planning a vacation together, either by visiting your travel advisor or at TTC.com. Doing so offers an experience you can book now and look forward to for months, yielding memories you will treasure for a lifetime.

Wishing you all the joy of love and travel,

Stanley S. Tollman

Chairman, The Travel Corporation

January of 2020 marks the beginning of a new year, a new decade and, for those of us at The Travel Corporation, the start of a new century. It is a natural time to look forward and chart a path into the future, which is what we have been doing. Yet it is also a time to reflect back, with deep gratitude, on the efforts of those on whose shoulders we stand, who have brought us to where we are today. And when I do that, I think of my grandfather, Solomon Tollman.

Born in 1895 in the small town of Riteve, Lithuania Solomon – or Solly, as he came to be known – was one of eighteen children. At the age of 14, he fled the country, escaping six years of military conscription and a lifetime of oppression under the Czar. With nothing more than the few gold rubles my great-grandmother had stitched into his clothing, Solomon was smuggled out of the country on a train, to make his way across Europe to England, where he purchased a steerage class ticket on a steam ship bound for Cape Town, South Africa.

Working his way up the coast he arrived in the sleepy fishing village of Paternoster, where he spotted an old building that had once been a community center. Hard- working and passionate, Solomon saw this run-down fixer-upper as the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to build something great. Purchasing and refurbishing it, he opened it as “The Paternoster Hotel.” That was August of 1920 – and the start of The Travel Corporation.

It was in that hotel that my family’s passion for service developed. He treated every guest as though they were his only guest, welcoming each with the warmth and hospitality he had not found in his own travels. Working day and night, he built that hotel into a thriving business. In the process, he defined our family legacy: Driven by Service. While much has changed over the past 100 years, this passionate focus has remained exactly the same, and is precisely the attitude that defines each company within The Travel Corporation today.

A few years later Solomon married my grand-mother, Evelyn, and it was in 1930 that they welcomed the arrival of my father, Stanley Tollman who is, to this day, TTC’s Chairman and guiding visionary. A few years later the family moved from Paternoster to the thriving metropolis of Johannesburg, where they purchased The Palace hotel, which was to become Stanley’s childhood home. When my father and his brother, Arnold, were not in school they worked at the hotel. Just as The Paternoster was recognized for its dedication to service, so was The Palace.

Though my father is a natural hotelier, my grandparents had other plans for him, for they knew what hard work it was. They sent him to university to become a pharmacist, a subject in which he had little interest. Everything changed in 1952, when Solomon and Evelyn set off on six month trip around the world, asking Stanley to keep an eye on The Palace Hotel and its general manager.

Upon their return in 1953, my grandparents were shocked to learn that, in their absence, Stanley had dropped out of university, fired the hotel’s general manager and was now running it himself – with great success. “I have decided,” he announced, “that I am, and always will be, a hotelier.” So it was, at the age of 22, that my father found the work he loved, embarking on the career that would change his life and the world of travel.

It was that same year he met the other great love of his life, my mother, Beatrice. They married in 1954, sharing a love for each other and the passion for service that defines our family. With the money they received for wedding gifts, they leased a newly built 22 room hotel in Johannesburg, The Nugget. It was there that my father was to learn what my grandfather truly meant when he said “Driven by Service.”

One night, as two guests dined in The Nugget’s otherwise empty restaurant, my father looked out the window at the busy restaurant across the street. “What have they got that we don’t?” he asked his father. My grandfather shook his head.

“You must never do that,” he said. “You must not worry about what someone else is doing. You have two customers. Take great care of them. Give them the best possible experience. They will come back – with two more. And those four will turn to eight, those eight to sixteen and on and on….”

And that’s exactly what my father did. By the end of the year, The Nugget was the most famous hotel in Johannesburg.

Much has changed over the years, as my parents welcomed me, my brother, and two sisters into the world. We work within TTC today, and my parents, who recently celebrated 65 years of marriage, are as actively involved as ever. What began with a small hotel on the coast of South Africa has grown into a successful, still family owned and run global business, with 42 award-winning brands helping millions of travelers each year to discover the world.

Looking ahead to this year, this decade, and the start of our second century, there is hopefully much more growth and change to come, and we are tremendously excited about it. But one thing will never change, that attitude of truly caring for our travelers and treating you like family. Sincerely, Brett Tollman

Sincerely,
Brett Tollman