Grand Expansion

With the advent of travel booking websites and Internet deals, the landscape of the travel industry has changed, but it's not dead. In fact, one such business, which has built a new 9,200-square-foot state-of-the-art call center across the street from its 14,000-square-foot corporate headquarters north of Sarasota Bradenton International airport, is in expansion mode.

The two facilities — which reside in Manatee County but operate with a Sarasota postal address — house three related companies. The parent company, Grand Incentives, offers travel incentive programs to corporations designed to enhance customer and employee relationships. The Coast to Coast Grand Getaways division is a membership-based travel club. And most recently, the firm launched Grand Excursion to provide concierge travel services at no extra charge to Coast to Coast Grand Getaways members.

Grand Excursions received $150,000 in financial incentives from Manatee County to support its growth, including $81,890 to be used toward new employee training, $60,000 in incentive-based grants, and $7,797 in impact-fee waivers, according to a statement from the Manatee Chamber of Commerce.