Custom Travel To France

Well it has been quite a journey so far ever since we started our company, BellaTerra Travel. It all started in 2003, when my good friend John Holding and I had this idea of conducting tours in France. John had had this passion about traveling forever and had already traveled extensively throughout the globe. He also knew some people who had a tour operator conducting wine tours in France. As for me, I have a French degree in tourism (the equivalent of an Associates Degree) and have always been in the travel industry since I graduated. So we started playing with the idea and naturally things fell into place. We were very enthusiastic about our project and had a ton of ideas. After setting up the company, we both went to France to explore deeper the regions of France that we already knew and made lots of relationships with providers and charming places to stay. Back home, we printed posters and advertised here and there with our modest budget. The problem was: despite our great intentions, we were not known at all, and we could only set up 2 trips per year without quitting our full time jobs, which made it difficult. For months, nobody signed up. Then came the departure date, and our enthusiasm had taken a toll. Nonetheless discouraged, we gathered our hopes again and planned a new trip. We started giving conferences about the French Alps all over the Bay Area. Our presentations actually attracted a lot of people and despite talking to full rooms of very interested folks, still nobody signed up. However, after each conference, we had many inquiries regarding custom trips to France. Could we arrange custom travel just for a couple? Could we organize excursions, accommodations and car rentals? We were not prepared, but after all being French and in the travel industry, why couldn’t I do it? Suddenly, it was all making sense.

That’s when we decided to follow the trend and therefore modify our scheme. We took requests for custom tours and started building our products from there. We knew very well that the market had a low level of competition: the French Alps for example are hard to find amongst tour operators. A few will offer some ski options, but never any cultural experiences even though the region has so much to offer such as medieval castles, spectacular lakes and mountains and adorable chalets. As for Provence and Paris, even though they are more popular destinations, none of the big tour operators offer the level of personal service and customization. We already had the places picked out as well as the providers, we needed someone to help us with marketing and developing the website. John’s wife, Beth, was the perfect match for the marketing job. She had tons of experience in sales and was a big executive in a software company. My husband Laurent, being a wiz in computers and softwares naturally took the job of crafting our website. Both of them became members of BellaTerra Travel. John having been the CEO and CFO of a big company employing over 1,800 people, doing our accounting and taking care of the paperwork was a walk in the park for him. As for me, I became the Chief Operating Officer in charge of setting up the products and making reservations. With our team completed, we headed into the new path of building custom trips to Paris, the French Alps and Provence.

Life has been really good since then. Slowly, our database of customers started growing until I was able to leave my full time job at a local travel agency and dedicate myself to BellaTerra.

Having so much more time on my hands enabled me to work on the products, provide a high level of customer service, and grow the business with the precious help of my colleagues.

I am getting ready to leave to the South West of France in 2 days. The trip is sponsored by the French Ministry of Tourism to help promote the destination. When I get back, I will have plenty of insights on the region and we will offer exciting new packages and activities in that beautiful area.

Celia Coene