Last week Bella Rangel-Callan received AWTE’s Joan Richardson Award for her contribution to the travel industry. Juliet Dennis hears about her 40-year career
If you don’t know who the grand dame of travel is, you should.
There are few women in travel who can lay claim to the type of life Bella Rangel-Callan has enjoyed.
From her upbringing in India, to years spent in England, Yemen and Hong Kong, she achieved her dream of owning a travel agency with Jebsens Travel in London in 1979.
Her efforts were rewarded last week when she was presented with the Association of Women Travel Executives’ Joan Richardson Award for her tireless support of the organisation, charities and contribution to the travel industry.
The fact the 72-year-old is still working as a travel agent for a small number of loyal clients, with the help of husband Tim, is testament to the type of person she is.
“I have no intention of retiring. I am enjoying myself too much,” she says with a winning smile.
A passion for business
While a travel agent by day, Bella is better known in recent years for bringing her Mary Poppins bag of jewellery to travel industry functions after deciding to set up a sideline business in jewellery five years ago.
Clearly, Bella has always had an eye for business and knows how to mix it with pleasure.
Bella, who was born in Poona, now Pune, in India, said: “I had everything planned – I always wanted to be in business.”
It is no surprise the young Bella could be found giving English tuition after school to the neighbours’ children for five rupees a month. “It was a lot of money at the time. It was during the Raj and Poona was a military station,” she recalled.
At the age of 17 she married a distant relative 11 years her senior. For many of their 27 years together – during which time they had three children – the couple lived in different countries.
Sixteen years were spent in Aden, Yemen, where her husband began his career as legal assistant to the attorney general and ended up a magistrate with an MBE.
“We didn’t have much time together – it was tough on the children and on me. [My husband] used to come home and study. I didn’t sit idle – I had a milk clinic for the poor kids and before the children came along I was a substitute teacher for five months in a convent,” she said.
In between, there were stints in London – for her husband’s work – but money continued to be tight.
At one point during 1961-62, the family moved into Jebsens Travel temporary accommodation in London. “We didn’t have enough money so we had one big room. We had bunk beds for the boys and put two chairs together to make a bed for my daughter.”
The family was evacuated from Aden in 1967 when the Middle East war broke out, and they once more found themselves in the UK.
“We came on an RAF aircraft that landed at Croydon airport. We had just three suitcases. Even though we had a golden handshake as part of the evacuation there was still not enough money.”
First steps in travel
It was in London in 1968 that Bella got her first taste of the travel industry.
After a hotel reservations course, Bella and her husband became one of five partners who bought a 110-room bed-and-breakfast hotel in Bayswater. But the deal turned sour when the manager employed to run the hotel was found to be gambling away the profits and was sent to jail for embezzlement.
In the meantime, the pair moved to Hong Kong and it was there Bella got a job in sales for Jardine Airways, the general sales agent for British Airways.
The experience was to come in handy when, some years later, Bella arrived back in the UK – having left her husband – and landed the job of opening a business travel agency on behalf of Norwegian shipping consultancy Jebsens.
The agency – which specialised in looking after ship crews’ travel – opened its doors in July 1979, with Bella as manager.
“Customers used to come in and ask for Mr Rangel – they assumed I couldn’t be the manager because I was a woman,” said Bella, who joined the AWTE in the early 1980s. “It was more unusual than it is now to be a woman running a business and the AWTE helped me. It was a very exciting time.”
From the agency, upmarket tour operator Pearls was developed as the business went from strength to strength. “My tour operation did very well – we used to sell cruises for £120,000,” she said.
But for Bella the biggest challenge of her travel career was in 1998 when she was given the chance to conduct a management buyout of the business after the sale of the parent company. “I didn’t have the foggiest idea where I was going to get the money from but I didn’t hesitate for a minute when I was asked if I wanted to buy it. I worried about it after I’d said yes.”
Success
A bank loan and successful buyout later, Bella had a team of more than 20 staff working across the agency and tour operation, which she moved from Vauxhall Bridge Road to its current Victoria offices. “They used to tease me that I liked the business so much I bought it,” she said.
Her no-nonsense approach meant she demanded high standards of employees. “I used to tell staff to treat it as their own business and they would get more out of it. But I am a bit of a dragon to work for, even if I say so myself, because I am very particular about how things are done.”
Bella’s wider recognition in the trade came after experiencing some tough years as a female boss in business. “I used to get letters addressed Mr from ABTA so I thought: ‘If I can’t beat them I’ll join them”. I became an ABTA regional committee secretary and then vice-chairman.”
Three years after the management buyout, business agencies were feeling the pinch as airlines cut commissions and agents switched to charging fees. Bella decided to sell up to Travel Harbour in 2001. “I saw the writing on the wall. I could see tremendous change and I didn’t want to be part of it so I sold the business but kept the name,” she said.
Bella’s success also led to the creation of the Institute of Travel and Tourism bursary. She funds a student to the tune of £500, with £100 spending money, to go to the annual conference.
Giving up travel completely wasn’t an option, as loyal customers – including the Jebsen family – insisted on her booking their holidays. “Over the years I have built up around a dozen clients who have two or three holidays a year – technically I am retired but this has given me a new lease of life,” she laughed.
Her business remains one of the few independent agencies with no alignment to any consortium. “I am going to keep running the business as long as it gives me pleasure. The grand dame of travel is not a bad title after all.”
