by LAURA DEL ROSSO
DALLAS -- Adventure Tours USA purchased Santo Tours & Travel
of Buffalo, N.Y., its second acquisition of a tour operator this
year. With the combination of Adventure Tours, Santo Tours and Town
& Country Tours of Phoenix, which Adventure bought in April,
the resulting tour operation will handle about 500,000 passengers a
year.
Santo Tours, which carries about 270,000 passengers a year,
specializes in Las Vegas and Florida, with charter air service from
Cleveland and Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y. The company will retain
its name and headquarters in Buffalo. Maria De Santo, president and
cofounder of the 30-year-old tour firm, will become a consultant
and her son, Christopher De Santo, chief executive officer, will
take over the day-to-day operations of Santo Tours &
Travel.
"This is the best strategic fit for both companies since there
is no overlap between the two companies' operations," Jack
Richards, Adventure Tours' president and chief operating officer,
said. Richards projected sales of $250 million and passenger counts
of 750,000 by the end of the decade for the combined tour
operations.
The acquisition was made to give Adventure Tours balance in the
seasonality of the tour business, he said. Adventure Tours
specializes in charters from Dallas and Houston to sun destinations
in Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean, a market which is strong
in the summer months. Santo focuses on Las Vegas and Florida in
northeast markets, traditionally stronger in the winter. "They have
a strong reputation in a corridor that helps us expand to a new
region and balance the seasonality of the Texas market," Judy
Christa-Cathey, vice president of marketing, said.
Adventure Tours plans to expand into the Caribbean and Mexico
and offer ski packages through Santo Tours in the northeastern
markets. It also will begin promoting Santo's Las Vegas, Florida,
Europe and Hawaii product lines in its markets in Texas, Arizona,
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Adventure Tours will launch
Orlando and Las Vegas packages from Dallas and Houston in the next
60 days using scheduled service; within six months a charter
contract is expected to be in place, Christa-Cathey said. Santo
will begin offering charter flights from Buffalo to Cancun, with
connecting service to Cozumel in the 60 days. It also will enter
Fort Lauderdale, with charter flights to Las Vegas starting in
December.
Adventure Tours and Santo use a variety of charter carriers,
including American TransAir, Southwest Airlines and others.
Together, they are expected to spend more than $60 million each
year chartering aircraft for their travel programs.
Town & Country Tours, one of the largest Mexico operators in
Arizona, uses scheduled service via America West Airlines. That
company also is scheduled for an expansion, with introduction of
ski packages to Colorado and Lake Tahoe and Caribbean programs this
fall.
Meanwhile, Adventure Tours continues to operate charter flights
from Dallas to Cancun, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Las Cabos,
Mexico; Jamaica; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; St. Kitts; Reno,
Nev., and the Colorado ski resorts of Crested Butte, Purgatory and
Steamboat on a seasonal basis.
This spring, it started flights to Costa Rica from Dallas, which
is will resume February. It also operates charters from Houston to
Cancun and Cozumel on a seasonal basis.
On the electronic distribution front, Adventure Tours
participates in Sabre Tourlink, providing agents direct access to
charter flights and hotel inventory. It expects to add Worldspan in
the next few months, at which point Santo's products also will be
available through both Sabre and Worldspan. Adventure Tours' Web
site at http://www.atusa.com also will contain Santo packages in
the coming months.