The company is owned by Lonny and John Larsen. When they made the bold move to Africa from Denmark in 1982, travel was not the business they expected to end up in. Lonny started off as a manager for Budget Car Hire and John was involved in the plant nursery business. English was their second language, and they had only a few friends in South Africa. But they had tremendous courage and they certainly were not afraid of working hard to achieve their goals of making a new beginning here in South Africa.
In 1984 Lonny moved on to help the legendary Peter Farquar start Metavia Airlines. By this time the travel bug had bitten, and both John and Lonny started to enjoy this new and exciting field which opened up for them.
In 1987 Lonny felt the urge to move on, and inspired by her dear friend Ethne Cameron, decided to start a travel agency in the then still war-torn Mozambique.Armed with a street map and a couple of contacts built up from her Metavia and Budget days, Lonny started doing the rounds at all the foreign embassies and businesses in Maputo using a borrowed car. At night you could still hear the gunfire in the distance, but Lonny had the courage never to give up. The business grew steadily. The first "official" Dana Agency office in Maputo was Brit Sedal's car trunk! Together Lonny and Brit started hosting travel shows in Maputo, inviting clients to come and look at the holiday products on offer by numerous South African tour operators.
At this time Lonny had a small little office in Anderson Street, Nelspruit. She would spend one week in Maputo marketing for new business and one week in Nelspruit doing the administration, quotes and so forth. John started helping with the accounts and handling office emergencies in Lonny?€?s absence. Business grew steadily, and with a staff compliment of two, the offices moved to Nelcity in 1994.
At this stage Dana Agency started making an impact on the local travel market, and City Center approached John and Lonny to become part of the franchise group. Several national accolades as best Budget agency and Lufthansa top ten awards were soon on the shelf.
In 1999 Dana Agency Maputo also became part of the City Center group. This was the very first City Center outside South Africa . After the war, Lonny and her Mozambican colleagues, particularly the motivated and enthusiastic Natalie, saw an opportunity in the market for incoming tours to Mozambique and so Dana Tours was born.
In 2003, Dana Agency became part of the Travel Experience Group, which included AA and extensive travel services in a one stop travel shop.. A move to the current offices in Crossings followed and in 2011 they joined Tourvest as an independent agency. Today, twenty six years after their humble beginnings, John and Lonny work with a dedicated staff of10. John and Lonny?€?s high work ethics and their passion for travel certainly played a role in ensuring their success. Unusual travel destinations like Cambodia, Kenya, Jordan, Bali, the Amazon, Vietnam, Madagascar and the Philippines are but some of the amazing places the Larsen?€?s have had the joy of visiting over the past twenty years. Their extensive travel experience and their obvious passion for it sparked many of their clients to try the "road less traveled?€? on their holidays. Dana? service excellence and first hand travel experience is a good combination.
"To make a success of a travel business you need to love what you're doing."
