Roxana Lewis, owner of Chartwell Travel Services, believes that to succeed in business, you have to love what you’re doing.
And what Lewis loves to do is travel particularly to Italy and other exotic locales.
By building those passions into her business, Lewis has been able to thrive at a time when many other travel agencies are closing their doors, the victims of severe cutbacks and caps on commissions imposed by the airlines.
“Niche marketing is the way to go in the travel business,” says Lewis. “Those who haven’t found their niche, haven’t survived.”
Lewis’ specialty is presenting travelers with an Italy seldom seen from the windows of tour buses. She also has branched into the increasingly popular world of “adventure travel,” booking trips for thrill-seekers looking to climb mountains in Ecuador or trek in Patagonia.
While Lewis still engages in the mundane stuff, such as booking business trips to Cleveland, more adventurous travelers represent the fastest-growing portion of her practice.
“I try to help Americans move away from the ‘If this is Tuesday, it must be Belgium’ tour syndrome,” Lewis says. “Rather than being protected by a tour escort who will lead them to the nearest knick-knack shop and the nearest McDonald’s, I help them immerse themselves in the culture of the place that they’ve chosen to visit.”
Lewis, 52, stumbled into the specialty travel market by accident in 1982, when she took her first trip to Italy and discovered that there was far more to the country than the sights she had been able to visit. Since then, she’s returned every year, exploring the country systematically, region by region.
As a result, she is able to steer clients to some of the country’s out-of-the-way places.
“Rather than booking someone a trip to Rome, Venice and Florence, I try to find out what their interests are and send them to areas that are meaningful to them,” she said.
If someone is interested in architecture, for example, Lewis will book a trip to the Northern Italian region around Vicenza, home of Andrea Palladio, one of country’s most famous architects. She steers food fans to the province of Emilia-Romagna often referred to as “the stomach of Italy,” for its distinctive regional cuisine.
It’s a sound strategy, says travel industry analyst Don Reynolds of New York-based Reynolds Associates, adding that special-interest travel is the fastest-growing sector of the industry today.
“The ‘boomer’ population wants to be more engaged in what they are seeing,” Reynolds said. “They are taking more ambitious trips and spending more at a younger age than their parents did.”
A basic, two-week visit to Italy booked through Chartwell costs about $3,000, although more extravagant travelers have paid as much as $10,000 for chauffeured trips through the Italian countryside. In addition to her standard agent’s commission, Lewis also charges between $35 and $50 an hour to help clients customize their trips.
In 1997, Chartwell’s revenues were $1.2 million, from $220,000 when Lewis founded the Inglewood-based agency 20 years earlier.
Today’s travel industry bears scant resemblance to that of 20 years ago. The airlines were regulated, and there were about 40 carriers, as opposed to today’s handful of major carriers.
Changes in the industry became even more traumatic for agents about three years ago, when the airlines began cutting and capping commissions for travel agents a development that has forced the closure of numerous mom-and-pop agencies.
Chartwell has been able to withstand such changes by putting more energy into special-interest travel. In addition to her Italian adventures, Lewis a marathon runner and avid mountain climber has been working with a growing number of adventure travel clients.
“When you go mountain climbing, you’re going to very rural areas where you don’t have first-class hotels and phones,” said Lynn Robinson, who booked a recent mountain-climbing trip to Ecuador through Chartwell. “You need someone who can advise you on where to stay, what foods to eat or not eat, and what areas might not be safe, particularly for a woman traveling alone.”
To qualify for adventure travel, all one needs is a desire to do something “out of the ordinary,” according to Lewis.
“My role is to ask the right questions and fit the perfect trip to the travelers, regardless of their condition or budget,” she said. “When people tell me they don’t have the money to travel, I say, ‘No, what you don’t have is the desire to make the commitment to do it, because you can travel on any budget.’ ”
Year Founded: 1977
Core Business: Leisure Vacation Travel
Revenues in 1977: $220,000
Revenues in 1997: $1.3 million
Employees in 1977: 2.5
Employees in 1998: 5
Goal: “To have my work reflect the things in life I’m passionate about”
Driving Force: Demand for niche travel services, such as adventure travel and off-the-beaten-track Italian tours
