A Legacy to Love: Liberty Travel Becomes Envoyage
Christina Pedroni
The time has come to turn the page on a remarkable 75-year chapter known as Liberty Travel.
My path first crossed with Liberty Travel when I booked my own trip for the first time, my 21st birthday getaway to Las Vegas. I felt like an adult booking that trip with Maureen Cook, a family connection and Liberty Travel agent in downtown Philadelphia. She made it easy, and all I had to worry about was the fun stuff. I felt empowered to make the decision to travel and celebrate with seven of my closest friends.
Never did I expect that 22 years later I would be writing a personal tribute to one of America’s most iconic travel brands, after leading the business for the past five years and overseeing its transformation into a new era as Envoyage.
I’m just a small part of Liberty Travel’s legacy. Thousands of incredible people have helped build a brand that made vacation travel accessible to millions of Americans.
Our founders, Gil Haroche and Fred Kassner, were pioneers in the travel industry. From a one-desk office in Times Square, they built something extraordinary. In 1951, Fred and Gil began selling trips to the Catskills and short jaunts to Miami Beach. They placed their first ad in The New York Times on December 23, 1951: an eight-night trip to Miami Beach, including hotel, choice of plane or train, and a taxi service, all for $99 plus tax. They were inventing the vacation package as we know it today.
From there, Liberty Travel took off, expanding destinations and agency locations across the New York metro area. In the 1960s, Puerto Rico became a top seller. And when Cuba closed to American tourists early in the decade, Liberty Travel pivoted to promote the Bahamas, which quickly became a customer favorite.
The 1970s brought the golden age of jet travel. Liberty Travel had grown to 16 locations. Americans were spreading their wings to the Hawaiian Islands and the Caribbean, while Bermuda and Mexico surged in popularity. By the late ’70s, the first all-inclusive resort opened in Jamaica, revolutionizing sun-and-fun vacations. Liberty Travel was quick to embrace and promote the concept.
The brand’s first 30 years are a time I’ve only heard about from the longtime employees who were still there when I started. It was well before the internet, personal computers, or airline GDS systems. Weekly hotel rate sheets were delivered to every office, three-hole punched, and added to enormous binders. Airline tickets were handwritten by the thousands, and there were lines out the door at every location. The agents, mostly men at the time, worked in smoke-filled rooms as customers and advisors puffed away while planning vacations.
By the winter of 1980, Liberty Travel had 70 company-owned locations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Florida. A full-page ad on the back of The New York Times Travel Section boasted: “Most offices open Sundays and weekdays until 9 p.m.”
Travel was becoming more affordable for the average American. Thanks to the popularity of the TV show The Love Boat, cruising took off. Theme parks, especially Walt Disney World, captured the hearts of families looking for accessible and affordable vacations. Liberty Travel sold it all.
The 1980s were a time of rapid expansion for Liberty Travel and also the decade I arrived into this world. I was born into an Italian-American family in South Jersey, the granddaughter of a travel agency owner.
My grandmother, Dorothy Fabbri, opened Town Travel in Vineland, NJ, in the mid-’70s and ran it for more than 20 years. I remember being mesmerized by the endless filing cabinets and brochure displays. I’d sit on the floor flipping through brochures for the Big Red Boat and SeaWorld, studying hotel maps of Miami Beach and the Las Vegas Strip, wondering about those heart-shaped tubs in Poconos resorts. The Disney brochures were my favorite, full of characters and park maps, so much to dream about. Unbeknownst to me, Town Travel’s preferred wholesale partner was none other than GOGO Vacations. Life has a funny way of coming full circle.
Because of my grandmother, I had the privilege of many family vacations. Bermuda was a favorite. And I’ll never forget when, in seventh grade, my mom picked up my brother and me early from school and said, “We’re going to Disney World.”
Travel truly got under my skin at age 14 on my first trip to Europe, an incentive trip with my dad through Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. I sat in the English Gardens in Munich with a beer shandy and a big Bavarian pretzel, and I felt so cool. After that, I was hooked.
There was a high school trip to London, a summer program in Paris, and a semester abroad at a hotel school in Switzerland. After college, I had a few false starts working in hotels in Philadelphia, and eventually found myself back at that same desk with Maureen in downtown Philly, not asking about a trip this time, but asking what it was like to be a travel agent.
When I joined Liberty Travel in 2005, there were over 200 locations and more than 1,000 travel agents. Every new hire started with all-expenses-paid training at headquarters in Ramsey, NJ. At that time, it was three weeks of Sabre (GDS) training, then a return to the store to sell airline tickets, followed by two more weeks of destination and product training, and one final week focused on sales and role-play. Six weeks total. And it worked.
By then, the agents were mostly women and known across the industry as exceptionally well-trained. Suppliers and competitors loved to hire us. But once Liberty Travel got in your blood, you usually stayed. Today, we still have advisors who’ve been here for over 45 years. Many others may have left, but remain deeply connected to the brand and to one another.
The agents, now advisors, have always been the heart of the Liberty Travel brand. They build relationships, remember preferences, know the world inside and out, find the best deals, and call clients when the perfect offer comes along. They’re the ones customers rely on during flight delays, snowstorms, hurricanes; or even a terrorist attack or global pandemic. They’re the reason people keep coming back year after year.
It’s been almost exactly 20 years since my first day of Liberty Travel training. Joining this brand has been one of the best decisions of my life. I met my wife here. I met many of my best friends here. I’ve laughed more than one should at work. I’ve probably also had a few too many drinks at work... but hey, it’s the travel industry, right?
My career has taken me around the world, which is why so many of us do this work in the first place. And I know I’m not alone, my colleagues would say the same.
Now, it’s time to pass the torch. On July 1, we officially bring Liberty Travel and its incredibly experienced advisors into Envoyage, the fastest-growing brand within Flight Centre Travel Group’s leisure portfolio. I’ve been leading the Envoyage business in the U.S. since we launched in 2024, and it’s been an incredible ride so far.
Envoyage is building a home for the most experienced travel advisors and agency owners in the U.S. It represents a fresh and forward-thinking approach, one that appeals to new generations of travelers while deepening our connection to long-time customers and empowering the professionals who bring their journeys to life.
To my fellow Liberty Travel colleagues: Welcome home. And here’s to the next 75 years.
