Carlson Companies lays off 342 employees
Deborah Caulfield Rybak
Star Tribune
Published Oct 9 2001
The continuing economic crisis in the travel and tourism
industries has cost 342 employees of travel and hospitality giant
Carlson Companies their jobs -- 110 of them in the Twin
Cities. Corporate travel agents and hotel workers were the
hardest hit by the layoffs, which occurred during the last week.
The Minnetonka-based company's job cuts came mainly from
the corporate travel and hotel management divisions, corporate
spokesman Doug Cody said Monday. "It's pretty much across
the board, except for our leisure travel division," he said.
Carlson also closed corporate travel call centers in St. Louis and
Albuquerque, N.M., and cut 51 jobs at a Chicago call center.
With 650 workers laid off earlier this year, and another call
center shut down in Manchester, N.H., Carlson's 2001 job cuts
are nearing 1,000.
Carlson operates Carlson Wagonlit Travel, one of the two
largest travel-agency chains in the country, and has interests in
the hotel, restaurant, cruise and marketing industries.
The parent company employs almost 5,000 workers in the Twin
Cities and approximately 40,000 nationwide.
The layoffs underscore the continuing crisis in the travel and
tourism industry following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Although tourist travel is rebounding, business travel has
suffered, Cody said. "It's not fear that's keeping business
travelers from flying," he explained, "It's companies worrying
about controlling expenses."
Cody said that Carlson Companies Chairwoman Marilyn
Carlson Nelson will be part of the delegation from the Travel
Business Roundtable, a group of travel and hospitality industry
leaders, in its visit to Washington, D.C. on Thursday to meet
with White House officials about offering travel tax incentives
as a way to stimulate the industry.
-- Deborah Caulfield Rybak is at dcrybak@startribune.com .
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