Bea and Stanley Tollman

A Letter From Our Founder

TTC 100 Anniversary Logo

Dear Fellow Travelers,

I write to you as the founder of our family-owned and run, award-winning Red Carnation Hotel Collection and incredible Uniworld Boutique River Cruises.

These are deeply challenging times in the world, as we all struggle to come to grips with the fallout and ramifications of this awful global pandemic. I have been in business for over 60 years, working side-by-side with my husband Stanley—we have never seen any prior crisis having such a huge, disastrous impact on our beautiful world.

These are very disheartening and very difficult times for those of us who love to travel and serve others with great hospitality. To those of you whose travel plans will be delayed due to almost all international borders currently being closed, we know you are disappointed. I speak for everyone at Uniworld when I say that we are, too. There is nothing we love more than serving and delighting you on our journeys and superb experiences, to connect you to the places, people, and experiences that make our world so fascinating and enjoyable.

This is the driving force behind all that we do at Uniworld and The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) family of brands. Stanley and I have lived lives enriched immeasurably by our journeys, and we have always wanted to find ways to share some of these with you, our fellow travelers. Thus, it is very difficult and so unfortunate for all of us to be forced to put all those dreams and plans temporarily on hold.

I would also like to take this opportunity to offer some perspective on the current moment. This year marks the first centennial of TTC’s founding by my husband’s father, Solomon Tollman. It was in August of 1920 that he opened “The Paternoster Hotel.” Set in a sleepy fishing village on the west coast of South Africa, it is where Stanley was born, in 1930, and spent his early years. I can assure you that a business does not reach the age of 100 without experiencing a great deal. Over the past century in travel, this family business has lived through wars, famines, shortages, terrorist attacks, recessions, and more.

I offer you this quotation from King Solomon, one that my father-in-law often shared with us during difficult times: “This too shall pass.” With travel plans delayed, our dreams of travel grow only more vivid and special. There are already green shoots and sense of light coming out as the world starts to emerge and deal with this current problem. Our phones are ringing again as people make arrangements to travel in the future and dream of travel. We expect to be there to deliver and satisfy those dreams by always heeding the Tollman family motto: “In pursuit of excellence.” So we look forward to having you join us on one of the truly amazing journeys that Uniworld offers in the near future, when the world reopens and it is appropriate for us to start traveling internationally again.

Sincerely and warmly,

Bea Tollman Signature
Bea Tollman
Founder of the Red Carnation Hotel Collection & Uniworld Boutique River Cruises

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