By Phillip Sheldon
Greetings to our past travelers, future travelers and friends!
In January I started my 19th year as owner of HE Travel, and it has been an amazing journey. Every day I find inspiration from conversations with clients about recent tours and from hearing our travelers’ dreams for future travel. The enthusiasm that you show for our travel experiences, whether with an official HE Travel group or on a customized tour with your own family and friends, makes each day unique. We are proud to be viewed among our tour operator peers as one of the most innovative travel companies!
We can offer over 100 memorable group and customized tours every year because of the amazing HE Travel team members who take care of every detail for you.
- Our Tour Operations team does the meticulous work of reserving each component of our group tours and of making sure that each tour day is unique and special
- Our Custom Tour team members listen to our clients’ travel goals, then craft a unique itinerary for them to visit the places of most interest to them, on their own timetable
- Our Client Services team answers our phones and handles all communications with our clients
- Our Marketing and Website team members post new tours and keep the information on our website current, as well as sending regular information by email so that our most loyal followers are the first to hear about new tours
- Our Travel Advisor team helps you select the ideal flights to get you between your home and tour locations in comfort, and can also help you book a special cruise
- Our Tour Directors are the faces of HE Travel that you’ll meet out on our tours ensuring high quality and smooth operation of our trips
- Our Executive Team makes sure that these elements all meld together to give each of you the most meaningful and enjoyable travel experiences that we can arrange
In our newsletters this year I look forward to introducing my colleagues so that you know who is working hard behind the scenes to make sure we deliver the finest experience possible.
The colleague I would like to introduce (or re-introduce) today is Zach Moses, a familiar name to those of you who have been reading these monthly newsletters for the past 9 years.
I am proud to say that after serving as our Vice President for several years Zach has now earned the title of CEO of hetravel.com and our new brand, outwestadventures.com. I continue as the owner and President of our company and oversee all operations. I will also continue to lead tours, including our China & the Yangtze tour at the end of May 2019.
Zach’s first contributions to HE Travel included a major website upgrade and establishment of regular email communications. He also showed prowess in expanding our portfolio of adventure tours and expertise in how best to organize our company. Within two years Travel Agent Magazine named him one of the top 30 American travel specialists under the age of 30, and he was elected to serve on the Board of the National Tour Association.
About three years ago Zach returned from Key West to his native Salt Lake City to open our second location, HE Travel West. This was fortuitous when Hurricane Irma hit the Florida Keys in September 2017, since we had the infrastructure in place to efficiently turn off our Key West operation and turn everything on in Utah the same day. After spending a month in Utah during the hurricane and its aftermath, I decided that the time was right to move our headquarters (and myself) to HE Travel West. I am grateful to Zach and his family for assisting with my move and welcoming my partner Jake and me to our new home with daily views of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains.
Now that we are fully settled in our new headquarters, we have exciting plans for the next few years, including new destinations, new ways of sharing memories of our tours, new partnerships to offer you more travel opportunities, new tours for the entire family, and even the possibility of space tourism!
Zach and I and our entire HE Travel family look forward to exploring the world with you.
Click here to check out our gay tour calendar to find your next vacation.
