Los Angeles-based TravelStore, a 25-year-old privately owned travel agency, recently opened its first Orange County office in Irvine and plans to open another in San Clemente in the near future.
The agency, which had 1999 company-wide air sales of $118 million, counts Golden State Foods and Prandium Inc., both of Irvine, among its corporate clients. Corporate clients make up about 80% of the agency’s business.
“Our suppliers (airlines and hotels) were telling us it was prime time to open in Orange County,” said Jewel Pugh, TravelStore’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Pugh said another motivation for expansion was to broaden the company’s reach in Southern California. The company has other offices in Brentwood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Palos Verdes, Westlake Village, and downtown Los Angeles, but only about 5% of its business has come from OC.
“Our niche is smaller corporate accounts with $1 million or less in air volume,” Pugh said.
The Irvine office has a staff of five, but Pugh said that is likely to grow with the addition of more OC business. Company-wide, TravelStore has about 200 employees.
TravelStore was ranked No. 40 among the 100 largest corporate-owned travel agencies nationwide by trade publication Business Travel News last year, based on air sales volume. It was also the highest ranking among Los Angeles-based agencies.
TravelStore was ranked the seventh largest travel agency in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2000, based on number of employees.
