RAY HECKMANN...the Founder
Ray Heckmann, founder of FESTIVAL TOURS on October 1, 1971, combined a single minded dedication to service and a love for travel which were readily apparent upon first meeting him.

Ray's love affair with travel and in particular with Latin America began shortly after World War II.  In 1946, he and a fellow aviator pilot bought a U.S. Army surplus Jeep that had seen service in Europe for the grand sum of $50.00.  The two young adventurers left their homes in Manhattan, New York bound for Texas where they boarded a steamer from Galveston to La Guaira, Venezuela.  They then drove their Jeep criss-crossing the continent until reaching Santiago, Chile. In all, the trip took nearly four months; but despite the lack of paved roads and in Ecuador, stretches where no road of any sort existed, it was soft adventure in 1946/47.

The two Americans were received as heroes throughout South America by everyone from Presidents to gold miners and railroad workers to sharecroppers. Sleeping at times by the roadside and, at others, in hospitals, police and army quarters, construction and mining camps, homes and guest houses, the hospitality was overwhelming.

Returning to the United States was only temporary and quickly followed by a year in Venezuela on an oil refinery contract. Then, back to Chile where he met and married Nora Foxley Diaz-Gana, and begin his family. It was during this time that Ray broke into the travel field as Sales Manager for a Chilean airline and later began wholesaling tour programs to the U.S., Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

Encouraged by Panagra and Pan-American to set up a Wholesale Tour Operation in the United States, Ray, in the fall of 1960, moved his family, now five in number, to Miami, Florida. Several years later, the opportunities presented by the New York World's Fair in 1964/65 lured Ray to New York. Then in 1971, the promise of Walt Disney World took Ray, his two sons, David and Ray, and his daughter, Christine, to Orlando, Florida; and the rest as they say is history. The years since have seen growth of a sizeable travel organization dedicated to the wholesaling of programs to North, South and Central America.

Escorted Latin America Tours
14115 Budworth Circle • Orlando, Florida 32832
Phone: (800) 225-0117 • Fax: (407) 208-0208

Website & Marketing: L.E.T. Group

Website Design Copyright © 2010, L.E.T. Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.