Firm to Offer Mexico Tours

Pleasant Travel Service, a Westlake Village firm whose chief operating unit, Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, books 200,000 trips to the islands annually, is about to launch a new subsidiary, Pleasant Mexico Holidays.

The move, scheduled for mid-January, marks the first time in Pleasant Travel’s 33-year history that it has offered long-distance tours outside Hawaii.

“We believe there will be a strong crossover business between our Hawaii and Mexico packages,” spokesman Ken Phillips said.

He said arrangements have been made to book travelers into 55 hotels and resorts in various price classes in such Mexican beach areas as Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. Mexicana Airlines will be the primary air carrier.

Pleasant Travel, founded in Point Pleasant, N. J., in 1959, owns five hotels in Hawaii and one in Indian Wells, near Palm Springs. The company’s Hawaiian unit books vacationers into company-owned facilities as well as into other hotels and resorts.

Phillips said Pleasant expects Southern Californians, who make up 40% of the firm’s Hawaii customers, to respond favorably to the Mexican packages, even though business from this area has been flat in recent months.

Bookings from elsewhere in the country started picking up in the fall, he noted. “Overall, our fall business showed an improvement over last year, though 1991 wasn’t the strongest of years for travel,” he said.

Pleasant has 2,000 employees, 250 of them at its headquarters on Townsgate Road. In addition to its tour business, the company owns a travel agency, Westlake Travel Service, but 97% of its tours are booked through outside travel agents, Phillips said.

“We’ll book our packages if we’re asked to, but independent agents are probably in a better position to tailor a trip to a customer’s needs,” he said.

Phillips said prices have not yet been set for the Mexican trips, most of which are expected to last from five to nine days. The Hawaii trips generally take one to two weeks and start at $449 per person, double occupancy, including air fare, he said.