Company:Carlson Wagonlit Travel

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Carlson Wagonlit Travel
TypePrivately held company
IndustryTravel agencies
Founded1994
HeadquartersMinneapolis, United States
Key people
Kurt Ekert (CEO)
ProductsBusiness travel, meetings and events
Revenue$23 billion United States dollar [1]
OwnerCarlson
Number of employees
18,000[1]
WebsiteOfficial website

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) is a company managing business travel, meetings and events for companies, governments and non-governmental organizations.

Tracing its origins back to the 1870s' invention of rail sleeping cars and the creation of Compagnie International des Wagons-Lits by Belgian Georges Nagelmackers, CWT is a privately held travel management company, wholly owned by Carlson Companies.

Headquartered in Paris, the company reported $23 billion in total transaction values[2] in 2016 and recorded almost 59 million transactions. The company has over 18,000 employees across nearly 150 countries.

History

The group has existed in its present form since 1994,[3] the result of a 50%/50% merger from two large travel agency ventures. The Carlson side was originally from the Ask Mr. Foster Travel Agency chain, which had already been rebranded to Carlson Travel Network.[4] The Wagonlit part came from the travel shop business of Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits.

On April 27, 2006, Accor announced the sale of its 50% interest in CWT to Carlson Companies and One Equity Partners, an arm of J. P. Morgan Chase.[5]

On June 22, 2014, the company announced that Carlson, a privately held corporation in the hotel, marketing, restaurant, and travel industries which owned a 55% stake in the company, would purchase the remaining 45%, held by JPMorgan Chase.[6]

References

External links