19 - The man who makes dreams come true

From Castelfranco Veneto to Toronto:the adventures of Gianni Bragagnolo (Albatours)

Travel agents sell dreams that can come true. They tend to their own interests, of course, because in business there's no such thing as a free lunch; but their business consists in opening to common mortals the doors of exclusive heavens, allowing them to cross oceans and continents, to explore unknown worlds. It makes no difference that these dreams last no longer than holidays do; what's important is that they come true, at least once in a lifetime. Travel agents make them come true: this is why they are quite untypical business people.
But 20-year-old Giovanni Bragagnolo, from Vittorio Veneto, was not thinking of this when he climbed onto an airplane and came to Canada looking for success. It was July 14, 1966, an emblematic date: the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, the event marking the beginning of the French Revolution and of a new era.
Was that date a portent of things to come?
"What portent?" he replies. "I can only remember that we, my friend Luigi Stocco and I, arrived on a Thursday, and some days later, on July 19, the famous soccer game between Italy and North Korea at the England World Cup was played, and we were beaten by a national team of beggars... I remember the embarrassment, but especially the teasing we Italians had to bear, particularly from Anglo-Saxons."
While still in Italy Bragagnolo and Stocco, after completing high school and attending a university course in petroleum drilling, started looking for a job. "But we got nowhere," Bragagnolo remembers, "and on the other hand, after the economic boom, Italy was heading for the recession of the Seventies. Politicians, who were then really blind, called it 'a growth crisis', but growth or no growth, if you wanted to work you had to go away. So we did."
An acquaintance of theirs, Professor Ottorino Bressan, had come to Canada some years earlier, where he was teaching Italian and history. The two friends wrote him to inquire about the Canadian job market. Bressan replied in a timely fashion: "There are jobs, but it would be much better if you came and saw for yourselves."
"So," Bragagnolo continues, "we bought tickets for a charter flight to Toronto from Cusinato Travel Agency in Castelfranco and we came and saw Canada."
How did you find it?
"A young country, still being shaped, that for this very reason had its doors open to whomever was willing to work."
Did you find a job at once?
"Look, we arrived on a Thursday, as I said, and on the following Saturday we had a job: cleaning offices, from 6pm to 6am the following morning. Our employer was an Italian Canadian, a very good person but inflexible. He imposed absolute punctuality and precision. 'Isn't America nice?' I asked Gigi Stocco while we were sweeping floors or emptying wastebaskets. Precious little for us, who had been dreaming of finding a job in an oil company, maybe one of the Seven Sisters, and going around merrily drilling away. Then again, think of what we had to suffer for that damned soccer game and tell me whether we had any reason to be happy."
I'd say you were tempted to go back to Italy...
"Not in the least. Going back to do what? We went on cleaning offices for four months and we never complained again because we realized that if one was willing to work this was the country for them. So we went back to Italy in November to collect what we had left there and in January we were in Canada again."
Did you go back to cleaning offices?
"Oh, no. Then Gigi Stocco's way and my own diverged: he enrolled in university and got a degree in geological engineering, and that became his job to this date. I found a job, the day following my return to Canada, in Ontario Sarracini's travel agency, after being recommended to them by Professor Bressan."
What did you know about travel agencies at the time?
"Nothing, nothing at all. I knew about office cleaning, because I had done it, and about petroleum, because I had studied it; as for the rest, I just had a willingness to work."
And in those years, you told me, that was in great demand...
"Exactly. Canada was blooming then, it was becoming a great country because it was becoming aware of its potential. Therefore it was a matter of inventing a new dimension, and this required will and determination, which I didn't lack. As it didn't lack in all the Italians that were coming here in increasing numbers and who were building houses and skyscrapers, digging subway tunnels, laying roads and railways. We Italians owe a lot to Canada, but at the same time Canada owes us a lot. Ontario Sarracini had created one of the first advertising agencies..."
Wasn't it a travel agency?
"No, Ontario Sarracini's agency was selling advertising space for radio and TV stations. But he had been caressing the idea of transforming it into a travel agency for some time, because of a great many requests..."
What sort of requests?
"You should know that at the time our immigrants generally came alone. After some months, when they had earned a little money, they sent for the relatives, the family they had left in Italy, so they needed somebody who would take care of the trip: prepaid tickets, connections, the organization of the move. They couldn't cope with all this. Ontario understood that, with an ever-expanding community and the new needs implied by it, this was to become tomorrow's business. On the other hand, I told you, in those years a willingness to work and a determined spirit were enough. Thus Ontario Sarracini called me and asked me to transform his agency from advertising to travel."
And you did it.
"Yes, I did it. And I dare say with some success, considering the results. I worked with Ontario for 12 years. We found out we got along quite well, because he is a theoretician while I'm a pragmatist, so he always gave me a free hand. But I want to add that Ontario is first and foremost a straightforward fellow, he never even thinks of wronging anybody, and this helped me a lot."
But in exchange you made his agency take off.
"Pah... let's say there were converging causes: on the one hand work increased, so we had to keep to the pace of times and customer needs; on the other, I admit I got pretty busy with the job, so that in some years our agency became one of Canada's largest. Meanwhile other Italian Canadian agencies were born or expanding, practically monopolizing travels to and from Italy. Our fellow Italians were affirming themselves and had the financial resources to go back to Italy once or twice a year. But finding places on planes and in hotels was a problem. Think that Alitalia, for instance, arrived in Toronto only in 1972; before that the plane only landed in Montreal, and the Montreal-Toronto leg was covered by Air Canada. In short, time was ripe for a quality leap."
That is to say?
"Creating Albatours. Faced with the need to manage directly both the air traffic and the booking of flights and hotel accommodations, the most important travel agencies decided to create a consortium. It was in 1978, and the agencies were Ontario Sarracini, St. Clair, Cianfarani, Forum, Padovani, Comar and Ventresca. I was appointed general manager of Albatours. The idea was simple: the airways' and vacation agents' need to have one correspondent rather than many agencies and it was satisfied by Albatours, who purchased whole packages on behalf of its associates. It was a success. The rest was merely a consequence."
Exactly what was this consequence?
"We began with summer charter flights to Italy and we invented the non-stop flights to Rome, Venice, Pescara, Lamezia. We launched winter vacations in Italy and then expanded the choice to Mexico, Cuba and the Caribbean. This is why today our agents can offer full board exotic holidays at competitive prices, inclusive of excursions and flight. A package, in short. And a habit was born: halfway through the cold season for a couple of weeks Canadians - you will have noticed it - are now used to a winter under a tropical sun. I can say with pride that I gave a decisive contribution to this habit. I started with two girls, now we have a staff of 150. But don't think it was a bed of roses..."
I bet.
"You see, we Italians had to elbow our way. Canadians were aware that we were precious, but they didn't admit it very easily. Let me just offer you an example: my name is Giovanni, but here I had myself called Johnny, and especially in the beginning this helped my business with Canadians. Can you imagine how many people had to anglicize even their family name to be able to work? Strange, isn't it? But these are natural quirks in a country being shaped, such as this. But this did not keep Albatours from managing 135,000 passengers per year, with a turnover of over 100 million dollars. Then, in 1996, the turning point."
What turning point?
"Manchester-based Airtour, the world's largest tour operator, bought the majority of our shares. The year before that, Airtour had also bought Sunquest, a competitor of ours. Albatours and Sunquest, under Airtour's impulse, created North American Leisure Group, and I became its vice president, while at the same time remaining in charge of Albatours. This means we are today a worldwide group. Airtour, that in 1997 bought Costa Cruise in partnership with Carneval Cruise, handles the tune of 8 million passengers per year, and owns airplanes, hotels, ships. And North American Leisure Group, the company we created in collaboration with Sunquest, is associated to an airline, Sky Service, that works for us alone. Not bad, wouldn't you say?"
Nowadays, specialized magazines describe you as a successful Canadian. But how do you feel: a Canadian or an Italian?
"Y'see, Italy gave me my training and my entrepreneurship, Canada gave me a chance to express them. I feel like having two souls: it is difficult to say which one I love best. I transferred these two souls to my children. My girl, Karen, 30, owns a franchise of Ontario Sarracini's travel agency; call it a homecoming if you please. My boy, Robert, 25, is now in Neuchatel, Switzerland, attending hospitality school. They were born here, but my wife Raffaella (the Castelfranco "girlfriend" I married in 1967) and I taught them to think with two heads, one Italian and one Canadian. I am sure they will not find it inconvenient."
Any regrets, Mr. Bragagnolo?
"No. I think of myself as a satisfied man, therefore no regrets."
But didn't you want to drill for oil?
"What a deal that would have been, with the price of oil doing somersaults! Better to sell dreams that can come true, as you say. When a dream comes true, it always brings joy. And joy helps us to live."

(translated by Emanuele Oriano)

Publication Date: 2002-12-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=2194