Transun

Transun was established in 1982 by Yugoslavian-born Paul Kostich, who founded the company at the age of 30. He had started working as a tour guide in India, East Africa, China, and Thailand at the age of 18, and was working in the airline industry in London when he decided to start Transun. He began with offering tours to Yugoslavia, then diversified into a number of different excursions throughout Europe.[2] He now serves as the company’s President.[3]

The company grew throughout the 1990s and early 2000s to include travel experiences and day trips to destinations such as Lapland,[4] Cairo,[5] Marrakesh, Bergen, and Florence.[6] They also began establishing relationships with airports throughout the UK in order to charter flights to these and other destinations. The company received special attention at the World Travel Market in 2002 for its travel offerings to Thailand, receiving a visit from Her Royal Highness Princess Ubolratana of the kingdom of Thailand, as well as Thailand’s Minister of Tourism Sontaya Kunplome. Both were interested in Transun’s focus on Koh Samui as a primary destination for the company’s travel packages.[7]

One of the main focuses of Transun in the late 1990s and early 2000s was promoting tourism to the territories impacted by the Yugoslav Wars. The company promoted travel to places in the Balkans such as Croatia and Slovenia, spending up to £750,000 in two and a half years without support from the Croatia National Tourist Office.[8] Their efforts became a topic of several academic studies of tourism in the region.[9][10]

Transun opened offices in Leeds and London, but later closed those locations in 2005 as part of a reorganization preceding the global recession. The company had also peaked at 200 employees, but reduced those numbers during its restructuring to focus on its digital presence.[11] They currently have offices in Oxford, Bangkok, and Koh Samui in Thailand.

Transun currently has a number of tour operations. Among them is a location in Lapland, where Transun arranges short breaks that include a trip to see Santa in a cabin located in the woods.[12] Their catalogue includes holidays to Iceland, Greenland, Sweden, and other locations suitable for seeing the Northern Lights, currently a popular attraction for European travelers.[13] The company currently operates the largest number of flights to Lapland direct from the UK - more than any other operator. There is a particular focus on Enontekio Airport in Finland and Kiruna Airport in Sweden, and charter flights run from small UK regional airports such as Norwich, Exeter and Humberside as well as the larger 'hubs' of Manchester and Gatwick.