GREENWOOD VILLAGE, CO (Thu Mar 15, 2012) — Twenty-eleven was a banner year for Christopherson Business Travel, a corporate travel management company headquartered in Salt Lake City (and the parent company of Andavo Travel, a full-service vacation travel agency). The company finished the year with $287 million in sales, an increase of nearly $50 million over sales from 2010. Christopherson also added nearly 40 new team members last year to support the growth.
Because of Christopherson’s dedication to excellence, the company continues to attract the best travel professionals in the industry, who each possess, on average, more than 20 years of travel-related experience. Christopherson maintains an employee turnover rate of less than 3 percent annually among its travel professionals, which is well below the industry average of 20 percent.
When Cameron and his wife, Camille, first purchased Christopherson in 1990, the decision was made to focus solely on business travel. This, Cameron felt, was where the company could excel, but in doing so, they would also need to determine a unique value proposition that would differentiate Christopherson from the competition. That value was found in three areas of the company – their travel agents, their account management, and the development of their technology.
In March 2010, the Camerons purchased Andavo Travel, which they now run as the vacation travel and independent contractor division of the company (more than 70 agents across the country).
Christopherson maintains the mentality that the more the company does to help others, the better everyone will do in return. With this in mind, employees are hired with salaries higher than industry averages, pay incentives for customer satisfaction and agency productivity, a generous 401K retirement program, and flexible work arrangements.