york ny ; 1951 founder fred kassner and gilbert haroche headquarters ramsey new jersey usa number of employees 2 200 parent flight centre ltd. subsidiaries gogo worldwide vacations website www.libertytravel.com liberty travel is a retail travel and cruise company headquartered at 5 paragon drive in montvale new jersey united states . 1 2 3 in 2013 liberty travel had 170 stores in 14 states and a total of 2 200 employees . 4 5 liberty travel is a sister company of gogo worldwide vacations which markets vacation packages wholesale to independent retail travel agencies . 1 2 in 2008 flight centre ltd. the largest travel company in australia acquired liberty travel and gogo for 135 million . 2 6 7 contents 1 history 2 recent news 3 references 4 external links history edit liberty travel was co founded in 1951 by fred kassner and gilbert haroche new york university classmates who started as a two man operation in new york city . 1 8 initially they focused on travel to the catskills and miami . 1 they offered all inclusive vacation packages that the general public could afford which was at the time a novel approach . 1 9 gilbert haroche has been called the originator of the package vacation with the companies deluxe economy package offered in the early 1950s . 10 thereafter new destinations were added one by one and the concept took off alongside the age of jet travel . haroche expanded the stores and became responsible for the retail side of the business liberty travel whereas fred kassner his founding partner became responsible for the wholesale business gogo tours which sold packages to agencies . 11 as of 1998 liberty travel had 200 stores in the northeastern united states and florida and was the largest privately owned leisure travel chain in the u.s. with over one million customers annually . 1 12 recent news edit liberty travel was featured on abc s nightline in september 2011 on the subject of travel agencies and how this business model is still relevant to today s travelers . 13 in may 2012 liberty travel introduced their new ceo emma jupp . 14 in 2012 they opened a 10 000 square foot flagship store on madison avenue in new york city with plans to open 10 more similar storefronts as large as 8 000 square feet around the united states in the next 5 years . 15 in 2013 they partnered with usa today on the publication s yearly 10best award in travel . 16 in 2016 dean smith the president of liberty travel s parent company flight centre declared brick and mortar travel agents are still important . 17 references edit a b c d e f edwin mcdowell october 8 1998 . fred kassner 71 who made travel affordable for many . the new york times . retrieved january 8 2013 . a b c jamaica tourist board jtb wins two flight center usa awards . south florida caribbean news . october 19 2010 . retrieved january 8 2013 . http www.libertytravel.com media media kit.pdf about liberty travel . libertytravel.com . retrieved january 8 2013 . liberty travel inc. company profile by insideview . insideview.com . retrieved january 8 2013 . the travel industry s long strange trip the deal pipeline . thedeal.com . november 11 2011 . retrieved january 8 2013 . marx anthony december 20 2010 . flight centre buys us travel outfit . the courier mail . retrieved january 8 2013 . tharp paul october 7 1998 . liberty travel founder dies . the new york post . retrieved january 8 2013 . about liberty travel . libertytravel.com . may 17 2011 . retrieved january 8 2013 . http www.barrypopik.com index.php new york city entry where travel begins liberty travel http www.travelweekly.com travel news travel agent issues fred kassner cofounder of liberty gogo dead at 71 arney june august 22 2000 . travel chain coming to maryland new jersey based liberty travel plans 12 more branches ; travel . the sun . retrieved january 8 2013 . http www.youtube.com watch v 2vpjojuld8o & feature youtu.be http www.travelagentcentral.com consortia gogo and liberty get new presidents 35418 levere jane l. november 20 2012 . liberty travel opens a flagship in midtown manhattan . the new york times . best all inclusive resorts for romance . usa today . october 27 2013 . brick and mortar travel agents are still important says flight centre s president . skift . 2016 01 08 . retrieved 2016 09 19 . external links edit www.libertytravel.com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title liberty travel & oldid 743671369 categories companies based in bergen county new jerseycompanies established in 1951ramsey new jerseytravel and holiday companies of the united statestravel agencies navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 17 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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