Kathy Drolett’s love of travel may be genetic. Her grandparents explored the world at a time when travel wasn’t as easy as it is today. In the early 1900s, they traveled to Europe, Asia, South America and other destinations; and Drolett remembers being fascinated by their tales of exotic locations. Experiencing their spirit of adventure, even secondhand, sparked something in Drolett that has never gone away.

She remembers that in the ninth grade she was determined to visit New York City and see her idol, Eddie Fisher, whose then popular television show was sponsored by Coca-Cola.  Money painstakingly saved from a paper route along with her resolve convinced her parents that the trip was possible. Proactive even at 14, Drolett wrote to the local Coca-Cola distributor and asked if he could arrange tickets to Fisher’s show. Not only were tickets provided, a limousine took Drolett from the show to Fisher’s hotel, where she and a friend met the singer and shared (naturally) a Coke with him!

Today, Drolett has that same spirit. As she stated, “You can make anything happen!” And she has.

Her career in travel started in 1981 when a friend asked her to help out “a couple days a week” in a travel agency. Since then, as she said, “I’ve been working six days a week.” When the agency changed hands in 1983, Drolett decided to strike out on her own. Today, Drolett Travel is flourishing with five full-time and two part-time employees in the agency itself and several working on outside sales, and is now in its fourth and largest facility.

Drolett Travel specializes in foreign travel with several unique options for the adventurous tourist. One of Drolett’s favorites is Worldly Women, a travel program offering women the opportunity to travel together in small groups, make new friends and see the world. “Twice a year for the past nine years, Shirley Elliott or I escort a group of women to various destinations around the world. With between 16-24 travelers, our own bus, driver and guide, we have a great time seeing the sights and getting to know one another. In fact, that’s the best thing about Worldly Women––learning about each other. We have had women as young as 18 and as old as 88 travel with us; some are singles or widows while others have husbands who just don’t enjoy travel as much as they do.”

Many of these travelers are repeat customers, and many continue meeting once a month for lunch because they have become such good friends. Worldly Women’s most recent trip was an excursion to Poland. Plans are well under way for fall 2008’s trip, Gems of Central Europe, when they will be visiting Budapest, Vienna and Prague. In May of 2009, the group will explore Hidden Charms of the French Riviera.

“Worldly Women is Shirley’s area of expertise, and anyone can phone her here for more information,” Drolett noted.

Drolett Travel also offers a variety of religious travel to 20 countries, featuring in-depth visits to many of the world’s most famous religious sites. In fall of 2008, a group spent 14 days traveling to Florence, Sienna, San Gimignano, Pompeii, Assisi and Rome. “There’s just something about Italy…I would have a hard time choosing between Rome and Paris as my favorite city,” Drolett said.

Asia is another area Drolett knows well. She was one of a select number of travel agents invited to China in 1983 for 25 days to determine if it was ready for tourism. It wasn’t.  However, these days, China and other Asian destinations are open, friendly, fascinating and welcoming.

Cruises are particularly popular with today’s travelers, and Drolett Travel offers many options, including trips to Alaska, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe. The agency also offers specialty cruises such as crafting cruises, square dance cruises and other niche travel options.

Of particular interest to teens and their parents is the spring break tour Drolett is offering. “I don’t have any interest in arranging for students to go to Aruba or Cancun, but we do have a wonderful alternative,” she explained. “We offer a trip to China for American students. Before the trip, we arrange for them to have e-mail pen pals in China. While there, the American students visit the most prestigious high school in China, plant trees at the Great Wall of China, visit their new friends in their homes, go to the opera, work with an expert kite maker and then fly their kites in Tiananmen Square, and spend an evening in a disco with their Chinese friends.”

While the Internet is used by many people to make travel plans, Drolett said, “We offer that extra personal touch that makes traveling not only fun but easy. While planning the trip, there’s lots of personal contact, and we’re able to help our clients make the best possible decisions about their travel plans.”

Asked about the success of her agency, Drolett said, “I’m not here by myself. I have a great staff, all of whom are experts. We love travel and we love making travel dreams come true.”

Spend five minutes talking to Kevin Hamilton, Lisa Hoehn and Dana Garnaat at Passageways Travel, and a couple of things are certain: They are passionate about travel, and they love what they do. With years of experience in this often volatile, always changing industry, expertise gained through study, networking and their own extensive travel, the people of Passageways Travel offer a trouble-free, efficient, cost-effective and thoroughly pleasurable travel experience.

Hamilton’s parents founded Spartan Travel in the late 1960s. According to Hamilton, “My father had been an advertising executive in Detroit, and my mother was an accountant. They opened Spartan Travel as a small mom-and-pop agency, and my father immediately realized the benefit of focusing on corporate travel. He began developing relationships with people at Michigan State University, the State of Michigan and Oldsmobile. So business travel became their niche, and they grew the agency from there. Eventually, Spartan Travel grew to include 14 offices, serving the tri-county area. There were nine children in the family, and I think we were all involved in the business at one time or another. I went to Michigan State’s School of Hospitality Business and went to work for Marriott, while my brother Dennis stayed in the family business. When my parents decided to retire, my brother suggested I return. At Marriott, I spent most of my time on the road, and I was ready to settle down. So in ’92 I joined the agency, and in ’94, my brother and I bought it from our parents.

“This is about the time we met Lisa Hoehn, who had owned and operated her own agency in the Detroit area and was working with Northwest Airlines. MSU was our biggest client and, with Lisa and Northwest, we were able to work out some mutually beneficial arrangements between Northwest and MSU at a good cost savings to MSU.” Michigan State remains their largest corporate client.

Then came 9/11, and everything changed. The travel industry virtually ground to a standstill. Agencies began looking at new ways of doing business successfully, and this included mergers. Hoehn was then working for Passageways Travel, a privately held business owned by Tom McIntyre and headquartered in Traverse City with 25 offices throughout the state. Hoehn said, “While with Northwest, I’d done business with corporations here in Lansing and with Spartan Travel, and I knew they were a good company with a good reputation and would be a good fit with Passageways.”

In 2003, the Hamiltons sold Spartan Travel to Passageways Travel, thus uniting two successful companies. There are currently 30 employees in the East Lansing office as well as a number of outside sales agents.

“Business travel is a huge expense for many businesses and organizations,” said Hamilton. “Large companies can spend tens of millions [of dollars] a year just on travel, and for many smaller companies, it’s a significant line item.”

Lisa Hoehn, vice president of national corporate sales added, “We’ve put together a great team, a team that really understands business travel, and we work with organizations of all sizes. We believe in relationships, in understanding what our clients want and need. We have all the technology that’s out there, but we know that it’s vitally important to walk into our clients’ offices, sit down and talk to them, work with them and look at what best suits them.”

Hamilton added, “We are familiar with travel policy as written by all of our clients and can plan their travel in keeping with that policy.”

While it is possible to use online tools like Priceline, Orbitz and Expedia, the experience is not necessarily optimal. According to Topaz International, a world leader in airfare and hotel auditing, a just released report stated, “Business travel itineraries booked by a designated corporate travel management company averaged $56 less than the exact same itinerary booked on a public Internet site.” And this doesn’t take into account the time and effort involved for the busy traveler.

In fact, Passageways now has an online option, but it includes full-time backup and support of the agency as well as live data, often not a feature of online booking tools. As Dana Garnaat, corporate sales and services manager said, “The traveler using our online services has the best of both worlds—the savings of online plus the convenience of having an agent available.” In fact, there is an in-house IT staff to support online services.

While 40 percent of the agency’s business is in corporate travel, another 40 percent is in leisure travel. Within the leisure travel area, there are specialists for any kind of travel imaginable. Cruises, Disney family vacations, trips to virtually every country in the world—the agents are ready to make travel plans for any traveler. Alaska Bound is a part of the agency, specializing in travel to that “last frontier.” Because each of the agents has traveled extensively, all can offer first-hand knowledge, advice and suggestions. The agency also offers group tours, often guided by Dennis Hamilton.

The final 20 percent piece of the pie is in the area of group meetings, incentives and association management travel. Onsite Passageways’ staff make sure that everything runs smoothly, even though the meeting may be in Cancun or China rather than the Lansing Center.

Yes, Americans love to travel, and the whole planet is there waiting to be discovered; the only question is, “Where in the world do you want to go?” Drolett Travel and Passageways Travel can get you there.