Belgium
History
The history begins in 1872 when "Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits" is founded by Georges Nagelmaekers. In the years after that, Wagons-Lits opens travel agencies and in 1928 the company merges with Thomas Cook & Sons.
In 1970 the "Eurest Group" is founded, followed by the "2-sterren" chain in 1975. After the innovation of the reservation system GDS in 1980, the purchasing of the PLM company (proprietor of the ETAP chain) in 1982, the Accor Group becomes the key shareholder of the Compagnie des Wagons-Lits in 1991.
In 1997 the Accor Group merges with Carlson Companies Inc. and Carlson Wagonlit Travel is born. The company reaches the 2nd position in the global travel market.
At this moment CWT Belgium has leisure travel agencies as well as business travel agencies. For business travel clients we offer specialised services through Business Travel Centres, imlants and explants. At this moment there are 5 Business Travel Centers and 1 Online Services Department throughout Belgium.
In 2003 CWT Belgium has acquired the shares of BBL Ticket Ltd. which is managed by CWT Leisure Travel. With this acquisition CWT has become one of the market leaders in Belgium.
In 2007, CWT Belgium invested in new technology :
- VoIP (Voice over IP) : was installed in all agencies and improved phone accessibility and
backups, emergency plan for all agencies, call monitorings and statistics.
- Talisma : a new email tool, offering better email service to our customers, due possibility
to fine tune configuration and email routing. Talisma provides the possibility to extract
statistics for SLA reporting and quality control.
