As the year ends, we think about all we are grateful for. Our relationships with our customers is one thing we treasure. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you. We wish you a merry Christmas and much success in the new year.
Our Family of Agents:
Bonnie Linn has been in the travel industry for over 25 years. As owner and operator of Plaza Travel in Scottsdale for 15 plus years, she has now moved her company to join the family of Travel Destinations agencies. Bonnie’s experience and vast knowledge of the travel industry helped in ranking her agency as one of the top ten travel agencies in Arizona by Arizona Business Magazine. Her patience and enthusiastic attitude has helped thousands of clients find their special vacation. She looks forward to making you one of her satisfied clients. We are proud to have her as part of the Travel Destinations team.
Plazatravel@traveldestinationsinc.com
Bruce Iacobelli began in the travel industry in the late ‘60s with Halabill Travel in Scottsdale. Future employment took him to Valley Travel and Mundus Travel as an agent and office manager before opening his own agency Architects of Travel in 1985. He is well versed in both corporate and leisure travel throughout the world and all phases of airline, tour and cruise counseling. Bruce joined our family in November of 2003. He brought with him years of expertise that is invaluable to the agency. He serves on the Board of Directors of ATAA, now the Association of Travel Agents of America and is very involved in their agent education and training. Bruce serves the community as a Past President and 30 year member of the Kiwanis Club of Phoenix.
aotravel@traveldestinationsinc.com
Haleh Malek - We travel, initially, to lose ourselves and, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than what our news media portray. We travel to bring what little we can, to the best of our knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed than ours. And we travel, in essence, to become young and free from societal chains again — to slow time down and to drown in “joie de vivre”, and fall in love once more! As a Certified Travel Consultant, Accredited Cruise Consultant, and Destination Specialist, I have traveled across the globe. I love sharing my knowledge with clients, and helping them discover new destinations and experience new adventures. My goal is to provide my clients with the most comprehensive and complete planning of their desired travel services so that they can experience something new and uplifting without the logistical hassles.
haleh@traveldestinationsinc.com
Edyie Ligorsky has been in the travel industry since 1984 before merging with Travel Destinations in May, 2003. She has traveled extensively, especially to her favorite city of Paris. Edyie specializes in honeymoons and cruises to exotic destinations. With her typical dedication and concern, Edyie is committed to providing personalized service to each and every client, whatever their needs and budget might be.
edyie@traveldestinationsinc.com
John Faulds joined the travel industry in 1975 while earning a B.S. in Business Administration at Arizona State University . Following graduation he worked briefly for a regional airline before focusing on becoming a top rated travel agent. He continued his education at night and earned over 20 hours past a Masters in Business Administration. John was invited to teach Travel and Tourism to juniors and seniors at ASU for a semester in 1992. Since 1980 John has held the professional designation of Certified Travel Counselor.
John has visited more that 104 countries on six continents and he has sailed on more than a dozen cruise lines. Over the years he has escorted groups through the U.S.A. , Middle East, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean . His favorite vacations are destinations rich in history and culture – from Pearl Harbor to the Pyramids of Egypt and Krueger National Park to Ankor Wat. Ever the compulsive club joiner, John began square dancing in 1988 and has danced and coordinated square dance events around the world. Having progressed through the C2 level of square dancing, he earned the name turn around John, also on six continents.
Beginning in 1999 John began teaching as a volunteer at Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County; helping adults prepare for the GED examination or to speak English. In 2006 John was asked to join the Board of Directors of Literacy Volunteers, and he currently serves as their Treasurer. Since 1998 he has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Retail Travel Agents, and served in a variety of official positions including his current position of Vice-Chairman.
John joined Travel Destinations in 2003, and looks forward to helping you plan the trip of a life time.
john@traveldestinationsinc.com
Reba Shikany joined the Travel Destinations family in August of 2006. She has owned and operated All Seasons Travel since 1985. Her specialty is cruises! Reba has been on over 30 cruises around the world. In addition, she has spent time in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York city and many resort areas in Mexico. Groups of any size also fall into her expertise. Reba is always available to help you with any of your travel needs.
Reba@traveldestinationsinc.com
Rosemary Janicki began her travel career in 1974. She owned her own agency in the valley for over twenty-five years before merging with Travel Destinations. Rosemary has traveled extensively to all of the continents except for Antartica and parts of Africa, experiencing cruises, tours and independent travel. She has been very active in the travel community, serving as the president of the American Society of Travel Agency – Arizona Chapter for six years. She served on the national board for four years. She served on the board of the Arizona Travel Agents Assn for six years and is currently on the board of the Arizona chapter of the American Retail Travel Agents. In addition she will be the first woman president of the Arizona Chapter of Skal in 2002. This is an international association of all segments of the travel industry. She has earned the CTC designation and is dedicated to finding the right trip to make your dream vacation come true. As both a leisure and business travel consultant, she is looking forward to additional challanges.
rosemary@traveldestinations.com
Steve Hamilton Having grown up in the travel industry, Steve’s father owned and operated one of the original travel agencies in Kansas City. From an early age he helped his Dad with different facets of the agency operations. During college he was employed by Braniff Airlines in Kansas City working in airport and reservation capacities. Following school he moved to Colorado to work, ski and grow up (not necessarily in that order). Steve worked as Manager of the May D&F Travel Bureau in Colorado Springs and not long thereafter he was offered the position of regional manager of that agency group. In time responsibilities grew to managing personnel, marketing and budgeting for three divisions in Colorado, Missouri and Arizona. Their sales focus was mainly in vacation travel with an emphasis on cruise vacations.
In the early 90′s he left that agency group and started a cruise only agency. With a partner they grew from a standing start to one of top 5 cruise only agencies in the Denver metro area. With a daughter graduating from Colorado State University he and his wife moved to Phoenix in 2006. Steve is now associated with one of the Valley’s largest and most progressive travel agencies, Travel Destinations, Inc. Steve is a member and past president of the Skal Club of Denver since 1977. Associated with the Arizona Travel Agents Association (ATAA)/Crown Travel Group consortium holding various board of director positions including Treasurer and President. Loves golf and most sports. Watched John Elway through his entire career with the Denver Broncos as a season ticket holder. Now it looks like I will be able to follow Elway’s son John through his college football career here at ASU. Steve is excited to be a part of the Travel Destinations, Inc. team and assisting with our VIP clients vacation travel goals.
Steve@traveldestinationsinc.com
Suzi Scher What do stewardess do when they quit flying? They become travel agents!! That’s what Suzi did in 1966 when she joined Cahill Edmund Travel Service as an outside agent and stayed with them for 12 years. She then opened up Avenues of Travel with owner Mary Groseclose in 1978 and was with the agency when it closed its doors in 2002. Suzi has been on 36 cruises throughout the world and to six of the seven continents. She’s been to Russia 4 times and to Hong Kong 5 times but only been to the Grand Canyon once! Her specialty is, of course, cruises and international travel. She is thrilled to be a part of the Travel Destinations, Inc. family.
Robbie Louchheim Robbie Louchheim has been working in the travel industry since 1986 and is the President and Owner of Travel Destinations, Inc. Robbie is an active, working owner in both his agency and the greater travel agency community. He has served on the National Board of Directors of ARTA and is a past President of the Arizona chapter. ARTA also known as the Association of Retail Travel Agents is the largest agent only association in the country. He has also served with ATAA, the Association of Travel Agents of America, which was founded in 1981 to provide strong leadership in the tourism industry and is the united voice of travel sellers empowering its members through strength, education and support. Robbie believes that the strength of Travel Destinations comes from the quality of agents that are members of its family. The continued success will come from the high quality agencies that become a part of the family.
robbie@traveldestinationsinc.com
Bonnie Paavola is Travel Destinations full time bookkeeper and assistant to the President. Bonnie joined our family in 1988 originally as a Travel Consultant. She has enjoyed her move from front line agent to the back office. Bonnie began her career as a Travel Consultant in 1980. Bonnie has traveled to: Ireland; England; Finland; Nassau; Hong Kong and Hawaii (twice). Her dream trip came true when she went on safari to Kenya Africa. She has visited Mexico with Club Med in Ixtapa and stayed at Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. She also has seen many destinations in the US. Bonnie is the backbone behind the sales force at Travel Destinations, Inc. and she will be happy to answer any general company questions and to refer you to the best person in the sales team to assist with your specific travel needs.
bonnie@traveldestinationsinc.com
Elaine Shapiro After graduating from SST Travel School in 1980, she joined Avenue’s of Travel, and was employed there for 13 years until joining Reba Shikany at All Season’s Travel. Elaine was considered the leisure agent for All Season’s Travel, and has toured over 100 countries on 6 continents. She lives to travel and enjoys nothing more than helping others with their travel plans. Being a world traveler herself has been an asset in assisting clients. When Reba joined the Travel Destination’s family in 2006, Elaine came along with her and is excited to be part of the “family”
Debbie Nordeen Debbie grew up in Phoenix and graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor’s Degree. After many years of working and raising her daughters, she discovered that she had a love for travel. She then went back to school at Glendale Community College where she earned her certificate as a Certified Travel Agent (now Consultant). After working 13 year at another local travel agency, she moved to Travel Destinations, Inc in Dec of 2007.
Debbie is a certified specialist with Sandals, Beaches, Disney and other companies. She has traveled extensively by land and sea and loves to fall back on those experiences to help her clients plan their travel. But what she excels at the most is group travel. She has experiences in coordinating large and small group’s seminars/meetings at sea, destination weddings, honeymoons, family reunions, birthday’s and anniversary’s celebrations. It is not a problem for her to handle a group of 10 or a group of 300 plus.
Debbie is very happy to be a part of Travel Destinations, Inc’s family and looks forward to many more years in the travel industry.
Debbie@traveldestinationsinc.com
Robbie and all of the Travel Destinations family would like to invite you to take full advantage of the first-hand travel knowledge and services that we offer!
