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Who We Are

Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. (APTL) is an upscale, wholesale tour operator specializing since 1978 in first-class and deluxe individual and small group travel to the East Asia region, including Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia.   Its clients come primarily through travel agents, approximately 80-90% (except for those clients booking tours to North Korea where 95% or more book directly with APTL).   The remainder of its clients are retail customers booking directly, usually through word-of-mouth or its websites.   The majority of clients are upscale (higher income), well-educated, well-traveled people and most often desiring individual arrangements in first-class or deluxe accommodations.   They are normally very interested in the history, culture and food of the destinations they visit.

Asia Pacific Travel normally handles 400 or more individual outbound passengers per year traveling to East Asia.   As a result of direct mail to selected travel agents, our toll-free “800” number, listings in various travel directories, and recommendations of travel agents, tourist offices, and satisfied customers, clients come from across North America and overseas .   Group bookings come from agents as well as directly from organizations such as the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the International Visitors Center of Chicago, the American Association of University Women, the Harvard Club of Chicago, the Geographic Society of Chicago, and the National Council for U.S.-China Trade.   Other custom private groups have consisted of 4-12 friends/couples wishing to travel together to an East Asian destination, some being escorted personally by Mr. Keats and/or Ms. Lu (see short bios below).   Over the years, Asia Pacific Travel has been fortunate to have many satisfied clients return for additional custom tours to a different or even the same Asian destination.

Asia1on1.com and its subsidiary country websites (e.g. China1on1.com, HongKong1on1.com, Mongolia1on1.com, etc.) are wholly owned by Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd.   Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. (APTL) is a division of Middle West Enterprises, Ltd., wholly owned by Walter L. Keats, CTC, CMP.   Mr. Keats co-founded the Mid-America China Exchange, Inc. (MACE) in 1978 specializing in tours to the Peoples Republic of China and other Asian destinations.   MACE was one of the first American tour operators to offer commercial tours to China when it opened in 1978.   As the business continued to develop to other Asian countries, it became appropriate to use the name Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. for the non-China tours.   All tours and travel arrangements have been sold under the Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. name since 1988.

Since 1987 APTL has been a member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the pre-eminent travel industry organization for entities involved in tourism in or to the Pacific Asia region, as a tour operator member, and was active for over ten years in the East Asia Travel Association (later called the Asia Travel Marketing Association) before its dissolution.

From 1989-1996 Asia Pacific Travel was the Midwest Representative for the Macau Tourist Information Bureau and the U.S./Canadian Representative for the Macau Government Tourist Office in 1997.   While representing Macau, APTL was responsible for the entire range of travel industry promotion, including travel agents, tour operators, and the MICE segment.   It also served as the AACVB (Asian Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus) North American representative.

Asia Pacific Travel continues to use technology to keep overhead as low as possible, thus providing its clients “very good value for money”.   This enables it to handle its national and international clientele with a staff of six persons located in Wilmette, Illinois, convenient for calls from most areas.

Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. was originally located in Kenilworth, Illinois but moved to nearby Wilmette, Illinois in 1991.   Both towns are neighbors in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

APTL Mailing address is:

Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd.
P.O. Box 350
Kenilworth, IL 60043-0350 USA

APTL Delivery/Shipping address is:

Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd.
2514 Laurel Ln.
Wilmette, IL 60091-2230 USA

APTL Contact Information is:

Telephone:    1-847-251-6400
Toll-Free:      1-800-262-6420
Fax:               1-847-256-5601
Email:            Please click on the "Contact Us" button at the top
                      or the bottom of this page to email us.


Principals:

Walter L. Keats, CTC, CMP:   Mr. Keats is the founder and President of Asia Pacific Travel.   He is a graduate of Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois and a 1967 honors graduate of Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.   While at Harvard he majored in Social Anthropology and began his international travels.   His early travels took him to Mexico, West Africa, Europe, Central America (where he spent almost two years in the Army as a junior officer stationed in the Panama Canal Zone), and finally to the South Pacific and Asia in 1972.   He first visited China in 1975.   He has visited every Asian country from Afghanistan eastward except Bhutan, Brunei and Sri Lanka.   He has been to China more than one hundred times, and North Korea twenty-nine times starting in 1995, considerably more than any other American in the travel industry.

Mr. Keats earned his Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) designation in 1988 and his Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation in 1990.   He is or has been a member of the Skål Club of Chicago, the Association of Official Tourist Offices, the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the China Roundtable of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (now the Chicago Council on Global Affairs), the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, the National Committee on North Korea, and the Association for Asian Studies.   He has served in various capacities, including Chairman, for the East Asia Travel Association Central Regional Chapter, and has been or is a director or officer of the Midwest Chapter of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, the Harvard Club of Chicago, the International Visitors Center of Chicago and the Mozart Society of Chicago.   He is or has been the Marketing Coordinator for both the Central Regional and East Coast Chapters of the East Asia Travel Association (as of July 1, 1999 called the Asia Travel Marketing Association) made up of the tourist offices of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.   Mr. Keats served on the governmental U.S.-Japan Tourism Export Expansion Initiative to promote increased tourism between the U.S. and Japan, as well as the Marketing Committe of the Korea Tourism Organization.   In addition to his duties at Asia Pacific Travel, Mr. Keats has served as the Executive Director of the Geographic Society of Chicago, and the Korea Council of Chicago. He has been a member of the President's Council of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Anthropology Alliance of the Field Museum of Chicago.   He has been selected by Conde Nast Traveler magazine as their South and North Korea "Travel Specialist."

Mr. Keats has visited forty-eight of the U.S. states and almost eighty countries around the world, including almost every Asian country and many Pacific countries.   For several years he taught the “Travel Geography of Asia” course at the College of DuPage, one of the largest travel schools in the U.S.   In 1972, while on an eleven-month journey through Asia, he worked for the United Nations Relief Operation in the newly independent Bangladesh.   He has also served as an escort officer for official visitors of the U.S. Department of State.   He is fluent in Spanish with smatterings of various Asian languages.   His hobbies include travel, photography and collecting handicrafts and paper money from around the world but particularly the Asian area.

Winnie Wan-Er Lu:   Ms. Lu is the Vice President of Asia Pacific Travel.   She is a graduate of Shanghai No. 11 High School in Shanghai, PRC and attended Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois.   In addition to growing up in China, Ms. Lu’s travels have taken her to Mexico, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia.   She has been actively involved in Asia Pacific Travel since 1982 focusing on travel to East and Southeast Asia.   She has visited North Korea three times since 2002.   Her hobbies include travel and cooking.


Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd.
P.O. Box 350
Kenilworth, IL 60043-0350 USA

Telephone:    1-847-251-6400
Toll-Free:      1-800-262-6420
Fax:               1-847-256-5601
Email:            Please click on the "Contact Us" button at the top
                      or the bottom of this page to email us.


Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd. � P.O. Box 350 � Kenilworth, IL 60043-0350 USA
Tel: 1-(847) 251-6400 � Toll Free: 1-(800) 262-6420 � Fax: 1-(847) 256-5601
China1on1.com is a registered trademarks of Asia Pacific Travel, Ltd.

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