The agencies

When it came to marketing and public relations, the Swedish American Line certainly were pioneers. No matter if they were dealing with a large travel agency like Nordisk Resebureau in Stockholm, the big office in Chicago, or a small office somewhere in Sweden – they treated everyone with the same personal touch.

In the early 1920s the company invested a lot of effort into building a large organization around SAL to entice the travelers. Hilmer Lundbeck became the director in New York. He had already established good connections with the Swedish-Americans, and helped with money transactions between the two continents.

In the middle of 1920 SAL had, apart from the head office in New York, local offices or general agencies in Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Detroit, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Halifax. In Sweden, apart from in travel bureaus, agencies could be found in convenience stores, tobacco shops or at newspaper officies.