Travel agency emerges from pandemic stronger than ever

Preferred Travel of Naples was able to move quickly when the world started traveling again, thanks some smart decisions made during the COVID-19 crisis.

By Beth Luberecki
| 1:00 p.m. March 19, 2023
| 0 Free Articles Remaining!

Olga Placeres doesn't just sell travel experiences — she indulges in them, as well. She's pictured here in Antarctica.

Entrepreneurs

After several lost COVID-19 years, demand for travel is huge, again. Preferred Travel of Naples is keeping up with the surge thanks to smart strategic moves it made during the pandemic.

“We had learned many lessons through the years about how to prepare for something like this,” says Olga Placeres, the firm’s president and CFO. She started at the company in 1988, became a business partner with the original owner in 2001, and then took over full ownership of the agency with her daughter, Kristina Gear, in 2019.