Pleasant Travel Service Looks for Boost in Mexico Tours

Passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement is expected to bring major benefits to a Mexican tour program launched early this year by Pleasant Travel Service, the Westlake Village firm that operates Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays.

The new unit, Pleasant Mexico Holidays, which opened for business in February, will actively market its tours among U. S. business people wishing to investigate opportunities south of the border, reports Pleasant Travel spokesman Ken Phillips.

“We’ve always booked business groups, but because of NAFTA, I expect us to increase our marketing efforts offering Mexico packages to business travelers throughout the United States,” Phillips said.

Vacation travel to Mexico could rise appreciably, too, as NAFTA inspires increased interest in that country, Phillips added. But he said it’s too early to say whether that will happen.

In anticipation of increased business in Mexico, Pleasant Travel has added three airlines and six hotels and resorts to its program there.

The program started with one carrier, Mexicana Airlines. In recent months, it has signed deals with United, Delta and Alaska airlines as well.

The newly added hotels and resorts bring the company’s number of stops in Mexico to 63. All are in beach areas on the country’s east and west coasts.

Phillips said Pleasant Travel will probably surpass its goal of booking 10,000 travelers into Mexico during the unit’s first year.

Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, the privately held company’s chief operating division, will probably exceed its 1992 pace by 10% this year, Phillips said. The unit booked 200,000 trips to Hawaii last year and claims to be the nation’s leading provider of package tours to the islands.

Pleasant Travel owns five hotels in Hawaii. It books travelers into company-owned facilities as well as other inns.

“The recession in the travel industry isn’t over, but it appears to have bottomed out,” Phillips said. “We expect to do somewhat better in 1994, but it will probably be at least another year before the industry as a whole makes a major comeback.”

To keep volume up, he said the firm will hold the price line and may even reduce some prices next year.

Pleasant Travel has 2,000 employees, 250 of them at its headquarters on Townsgate Road.