About Kuoni

The Kuoni Group marks its corporate centenary

Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its foundation in May 2006. The company has experienced a remarkable journey over the last hundred years, developing from Alfred Kuoni’s “travel bureau” on Zurich’s Bellevueplatz into an international tourism corporation with branch operations in 25 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. It’s a journey that’s still continuing, too.

Kuoni – The future of travel. Since 1906.

It was in May 1906 that Alfred Kuoni, a native of Chur in Eastern Switzerland, opened his first travel office on Zurich’s Bellevueplatz. His first group tour was up the 900-metre Üetliberg, the city’s local mountain, and cost the princely sum of one Swiss franc.

The beginnings may have been modest, but subsequent progress was swift: by 1925 Kuoni already had several branch offices throughout Switzerland and a further office in Nice. In addition to leisure travel, the company also began to offer its first incoming services – providing local advice and organisation at the destination – during this time.

By 1948 Kuoni had further expanded to include a comprehensive network of offices in Italy and France. In 1963 the company declared its market to be a global one, and opened its first travel office in Japan.

Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. today is one of Europe’s leading travel and tourism corporations. But a hundred years on from its foundation, Kuoni has also established an impressive presence for itself beyond Switzerland’s borders. The Kuoni Group has steadily and systematically expanded its position in the world travel and tourism market, and currently operates branch offices in 25 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA.

“By carefully expanding in its home country and in the world travel market, and by consistently pursuing its declared goal of ‘promoting quality of life and permitting valuable experiences’, Kuoni has remained true to its strong traditions, and has created a hundred-year-old company that fully deserves to call itself ‘The future of travel since 1906.