In a glittering ceremony at London’s Dorchester Hotel on April 13, 2015, Mr. Stanley Tollman was welcomed in to the British Travel & Hospitality Hall of Fame, presented by Travel Weekly and The Caterer.

Mr. Tollman joins an illustrious group of individuals who have all been recognized for their outstanding business achievement in the travel, hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors. Mr. Tollman was inducted in to the Hall of Fame alongside: Stephen Kaufer, President & CEO – TripAdvisor; Peter Kerkar, Group CEO – Cox & Kings; Gerald Lawless, President & Group CEO – Jumeirah Group; Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, Co-Founders – Corbin & King and Bill Munro, Chairman – Barrhead Travel.

“When I first started out in the hotel business, my father said to me: ‘Give the customer what they want’ – and I’ve tried to follow that over the years in everything we do,” said Mr. Stanley Tollman, Founder & Chairman, The Travel Corporation. “In the pursuit of excellence and trying to make everything we do the best it can be, I have been enormously helped – my wife, my partner and my soul mate, has been there supporting me and working all along the way, later joined by my children who have made all the difference, as well as the 10,000 people who work for us around the world who we call our family. Thank you very much for this honour – it is a very humbling experience and probably the highlight of my life.”

On this evening, Mr. Tollman was joined by his family and senior executives of The Travel Corporation.

Born in South Africa in 1930, Mr. Tollman’s first taste of the industry came from his parents’ hotel and restaurant near Cape Town, and from the age of 19 he set about building his own portfolio of hospitality businesses. His second hotel in Johannesburg, The Hyde Park Hotel, was home to the Colony restaurant whose glamorous cabaret bar played host to the likes of Petula Clark, Michael Caine, Stanley Baker, Marlene Dietrich and George Peppard.

In the early 80s, the Red Carnation Hotel Collection was born, and has since grown to include 17 properties including the iconic Ashford Castle in Ireland, which reopened this month following a glorious restoration and enhancement.

Over the following decades, Mr. Tollman expanded his interests to include guided holidays, premium and luxury escorted tours, small group adventures, luxury river cruising, safari and adventure and youth travel business, turning his company into what is now The Travel Corporation. The Travel Corporation has grown under his leadership to be a truly diverse and global travel company.

Mr. Tollman still takes a very active interest in the business. Under his guidance the Travel Corporation has demonstrated its commitment to sustainable tourism with its not-for-profit Treadright Foundation, a joint initiative between the company’s family of brands. To date, TreadRight has helped support more than 35 sustainable tourism projects worldwide.