CV Travel

CV Travel (Corfu Villas Travel) is a travel agency for villas in the Corfu island of Greece. The agency was founded in 1972 by Patricia and Richard Cookson. In the early days, individually-produced, hand-finished brochures were sent out with a note asking for them to be returned.

During its first decade, the company added to its collection of Corfiot houses. In the 1980s, the company expanded its portfolio to offer villas on other Greek islands as well as in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balearics. The company has over 800 lodgings in the world.

By the 1990s, Morocco was added as a new destination. The Cooksons sold their interest in the company in 2004 to travel entrepreneur John Boyle and in 2007. CV Travel was acquired by specialist tour operator Kuoni Travel. Debbie Marshall was appointed Managing Director in 2004 and, under her management, CV Travel acquired the ski chalet operator, Ski Verbier, in 2005. Richard Cookson continues to work for CV in Corfu. In 2007, the company added the Caribbean as a destination, and in 2009, included properties in Great Britain and added villas in other new destinations such as South Africa, Thailand, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

CV Travel won a Condé Nast Traveler awards in 2007 and was a runner-up in 2009. Today, it is a specialist tour operator, selling villa and hotel holidays directly to clients and through independent travel agents.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/