BOSTON -- Ronan Ryan, who just purchased Brian Moore International
Tours from Far & Wide Travel, is ready to start over and
rebuild the Ireland tour operator with his new partner, the $50
million-a-year Europe Express of Bothell, Wash.
Ryan intends to open for business Monday.
Europe Express also created a new brand -- EEI Travel -- to
better denote the company's international product line. The company
also sports a remade Web site at www.europeexpress.com.
BMIT and EEI Travel will continue to operate independently for
the most part. BMIT will use Europe Express' ground operation in
Britain to extend its product offerings there, which now make up
15% of its business.
In turn, Europe Express will add the Brian Moore Ireland
products to its selection of packages in Europe, Asia and Central
and South America.
Europe Express also will lend its technological expertise to
BMIT to help it expand its Web capacities so that agents will be
able to book online, as well as through the call center.
In addition, agents will be able to check their bookings' status
at any hour, whether booked online or through the call center, via
the Web site. BMIT previously maintained a Web site for information
only.
Ryan went to work for Brian Moore in 1994 as controller, the
same year Abbey Travel/Tower Hotel Group bought 51% of the company
from founder Brian Moore. Ryan was promoted to general manager in
1996 and became president in 1997 when Abbey purchased the
remaining 49% of the company.
When Abby Travel sold BMIT to Far & Wide in 2000, Ryan
signed a three-year contract to stay on as president. When the
contract expired last May, Ryan gave notice, but stayed around to
help complete the operator's 2004 product line.
Ryan said the company will kick off with some promotions,
including some special fly-drive offers, hotel upgrades in Dublin,
and special prices for air-inclusive escorted tours for 2004 if
booked by Dec. 31, 2003.
Paul Barry, owner of Europe Express, said he bought into BMIT
because "there are certain areas of Europe where we've never been
able to break in. Ireland is one of those."
Barry said the difficulty in breaking into Ireland, when Europe
Express has products in several continents, was that the preferred
product for Ireland is "a little different from the bulk of the
Europe Express line. The Ireland customer base is very strong for
escorted tours. Europe Express never ran escorted tours."
And apart from Ireland, Europe Express has no plans to get into
the escorted tour business.
The failure of Far & Wide does not seem to have cast too
long a shadow on BMIT, according to Ryan. "When I took control I
set up a one-page Web site and offered the opportunity to ask
questions or ask for brochures. In a couple of weeks I've had
nearly 500 brochure requests and over 90% of the questions I've
gotten are statements of support, clients saying, 'We loved your
product. We're glad you're back."
Although the Far & Wide brand is "significantly tarnished,"
Ryan said, the newly independent brands are seeing "little or no
impact."
Barry said, "The travel trade understands that what went on with
the Far & Wide brand was a corporate failure, and it doesn't
hold that to the individual sub-brands."
It will be nice to get back to basics, Ryan said. "I believe we
have an opportunity to get back to the type of operation that was
in place before Far & Wide."
To contact reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].