he late Fred Kassner was one of the
inventors of the wholesale vacation packaging industry.
"For me, he was the godfather of tour operators," said Bill La
Macchia, president and chief executive officer of Mark Travel.
"He epitomized all that we are about. He was the tour operator
who taught a lot of people how to do business."
Acknowledged to be No. 1 to the Caribbean and Florida and among
the top three to Hawaii, Mexico and Europe, Gogo was launched half
a century ago with only ideas.
Kassner fled his home in Vienna when the Nazis took over in
1938, leaving everything behind. His father was president of a
bank, a scholar who wrote papers on economics. But when Fred came
to the U.S., he started with nothing.
After graduating from New York University in 1951, Kassner
joined with another NYU graduate, Gil Haroche, to form a dual
company, Liberty Travel and Keystone Tours. Liberty, a retail
agency, was run by Haroche, who still heads Liberty Travel
today.
Keystone, headed by Kassner, started by creating vacations to
the Catskills, but soon evolved into a new kind of travel service
company.
"We revolutionized the travel industry by introducing the
vacation package concept," Kassner said in 1996. "By combining
hotel accommodations, air fare and ground transportation to Puerto
Rico and Florida, we became your neighborhood wholesaler."
Kassner did not invent tours. There were grand tours and luxury
tours to Europe. Arthur Tauck Sr. had been running escorted bus
tours since 1925. Charter packages were available for affinity
groups.
Keystone's innovation was to offer affordable air-hotel-rental
car packages for individuals.
"In the '30s and '40s traveling was for the rich, students and
teachers," Kassner had added. "The blue-collar workers went to the
Jersey shore or Wisconsin Lakes. They didn't go on cruises or to
Miami. Our packages took that market and got them to travel. They
didn't know they could get all that for that price."
ASTA objected to Keystone Tours' advertisements for "deluxe
economy tours."
"At that time, it was believed that a travel agent shouldn't
advertise, like a doctor," said Kassner in the 1996 interview.
Keystone soon expanded, adding Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas,
Bermuda, Hawaii and Europe.
Kassner built the entrepreneurial principle into Gogo. "The
sales managers are partners," he once said. "We pay them a salary
plus a percentage of the net. You need to be an entrepreneur. We
give you the tools, but you're basically running your own
show."
He opened branch offices so travel agents "would know with whom
they were dealing." The chain grew to 87.
He also built relationships with agents through learning
conferences that increased productivity while agents sampled the
destinations.
In the 1960s, the company became Gogo Tours. It moved from
Manhattan to Paramus, N.J., then in the late 1980s to its present
location in Ramsey, N.J. In 1995, it became Gogo Worldwide
Vacations.
In 1996, Gogo started electronic booking, through Sabre, Amadeus
and Worldspan, and in 1999 mounted an agent-only booking Web site
(www.gogowwv.com). Under Gogo's affiliate program,
agents can link Gogo's booking engine into their Web sites.
Fred's daughter, Michelle Kassner, now president of the company,
is facing new challenges.
"I can't tell you how many said we were toast, that wholesale
was over," she said. "Business is tougher, the margins are tighter,
yes. But we can still add a lot of value."
But Gogo continues on the path established by Fred, which
includes a commitment to agency distribution, strong personal
relationships and customer service.
Years after the conventional wisdom said the Internet would make
travel agents obsolete, Gogo adheres to its agent-only policy.
"In the wholesale realm, the Internet will not change the basic
principles of business," Michele Kassner said, adding that "agents
provide the best sales and customer service support."
She continued, "The basics of how to be a successful operator
haven't changed. We meet with our partners and strategize about how
they can do more business and provide customer service. It's still
about getting out there with the customer."
At the ASTA World Travel Congress in September 2000, ASTA
inducted Fred Kassner into its Hall of Fame. His daughter accepted
the award in his behalf.
In a very brief speech, she said, "Fred did a lot of things in
his life. "Besides founding and running Gogo, he was a financier, a
restaurateur, a country club operator.
"One day when he was very sick, we went to see a surgeon. The
surgeon asked Fred what he did and Fred said, 'I'm a travel agent.'
"
The travel agent's daughter
Gogo president Michelle Kassner is a child of the travel
industry. "My mother was a client of my father's," said Michelle.
"She wanted to take a trip and she looked in the phone book."
Michelle did not start her career at Gogo. "When I was 18, 19 or
20, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life," she
said.
She studied literature in college and dreamed of joining the
foreign service or being a foreign correspondent. "What a wonderful
way to live," she said.
She worked in finance for two years, then managed a Manhattan
landscaping firm for five years. "I worked for a lot of famous
people, like Robert DeNiro, CEOs," she said. She started as a
manager, then moved into design.
At the end of her 20s, Michelle realized what her youthful
dreams had in common with her father's business: travel. And that
drew her back.
"We're selling the best product," she said. "I can't think of a
better product to be selling or promoting in the world."
In 1988, she joined Gogo as a clerk in the tour department. In
1992, she became manager of the European product, in 1993 director
of European marketing and in 1995 senior vice president of
marketing.
She became executive vice president in fall 1998 and president
in 2000. Last December, she was elected to the board of directors
of the U.S. Tour Operators Association.
With her design experience, Michelle gave Gogo's marketing a
bright new sheen. She went after private-label contracts, greatly
bolstering business with partnerships for Midwest Airlines
Vacations, Our Lucaya Vacations, Air Canada's Canada and Air France
Holidays.
As she took on more responsibility, she brought the energy of a
new generation to the business, but she stayed close to her
father's principles.
Michelle follows a slogan she put on her computer: "A company in
which anyone is afraid to speak up, to differ, to be daring and
original is closing the coffin lid on itself."
"The more minds, ideas, people that approach a problem or
challenge, the better," she said. "We get everyone involved,
including the receptionists. If they're part of the process,
they're going to care more."
Fred Kassner Award created to affirm agent
entrepreneurs
Fred Kassner fell victim to cancer and died in October 1998. In
his honor, Gogo this year is commemorating its 50th anniversary by
establishing the annual Fred Kassner Award for Outstanding Travel
Agency, a $10,000 prize.
Entries for the first year's contest ended July 1. The award was
created to recognize entrepreneurial excellence in agents.
"We're looking for people who have done something innovative in
sales and marketing," said Eileen Kennedy, vice president of
regional marketing. "We're really trying to capture the spirit of
Fred Kassner. Since he was such an entrepreneur, we're trying to
reward the entrepreneurial spirit."
Finalists will be selected by Michelle Kassner, Kennedy and Ed
Fioravante, vice president of sales.
Three finalists will be flown to Gogo's learning conference in
the Bahamas Sept. 21 to 24, and the winner will be announced at the
conference.