Brett Tollman

The South African businessman Brett Tollman was born on August 7, 1961 in South Africa. He currently lives in Santa Monica, California, with his wife and three children.

Professional Experience

Brett Tollman has been a tourism and travel industry professional for the past 30 years. He now serves as President and CEO of the Travel Corporation, a successful international travel group that includes more than 25 award winning tourism brands. Among these brands are high-end hotels, boutique river cruise ships and niche tour operators.

The Travel Corporation has been a family owned business for several decades, and was established by Brett Tollman’s father, Stanley Tollman. Brett Tollman himself is the third generation of Tollmans involved in tourism, with the fourth generation already involved in the running of the business.

The Travel Corporation employs about 4,000 workers in more than 35 offices and operations, which are spread in about 60 countries on five different continents. These offices are in the United States, Canada, Western and Southern Europe, Southern Africa, East and South East Asia and Australia.

Since joining the Travel Corporation in 1997, Brett Tollman has held several key positions within the company. He oversaw the North American operations, the selling offices in Australia, and represented the Travel Corporation within the World Travel and Tourism Council, otherwise known as WTTC. He was appointed as a WTTC Vice Chairman. Furthermore, he is a member of the international chapter of the Young Presidents Organization, one of the tourism industry’s leading learning and development forums.

Back in the early 1990s, Brett Tollman was hired as the Chief Executive Officer of the Red Carnation Hotels, a position he holds to this day. Red Carnation Hotels is just one of many companies owned by the Travel Corporation, with others being Trafalgar Tours, Brendan Vacations, Contiki Holidays, AAT Kings , African Travel, Uniworld and Creative Holidays

During the past 20 years, Brett Tollman oversaw the growth of 12 luxury and boutique new additions to Red Carnation Hotels. Brett Tollman’s responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer include managing and directing all of the company’s operations, which are composed of sales, ecommerce, property maintenance, marketing, public relations and capital investments.

Personal Interests

In 1983 Brett Tollman earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration at Cornell University, an Ivy League school located in California.
Brett Tollman has been continuously heavily involved in raising awareness of environmental issues, which in the tourism field are primarily related to sustainable tourism. He is one of the founders and board members of the non-profit organization, the Travel Corporation's Conservation Foundation. This organization fosters sustainable tourism as a responsible way to refrain from harming the environment. As an environmentally conscious tourism professional, Brett Tollman is working to help in protecting ecologically fragile locations the world over.

Besides tourism, Brett Tollman is a big fan of movies, an avid student of history, takes time to practice yoga and try out his photography skills.