Who We Are…

Patty Lonsbary
President & Founder

patty@glotours.com

Patty Lonsbary created Global Tourism Solutions, Inc. by analyzing her own strengths, extracting her skills, and evaluating her resources to develop the services she can best deliver.  Her experiences as a consultant, volunteer manager, writer and fulltime RVer give her the unique talents to launch this entrepreneur venture.

Patty works concurrently with Private Motor Coach, Inc., (www.privatemotorcoach.com) to open the world of travel to people wanting to visit Central and South America in a luxury motorhome/bus conversion.  She accompanies travelers on board “Dolly’s Pride” – a Prevost coach equipped as a “house on wheels”. Private Motor Coach, Inc. is a company Patty manages with her husband Ed Lonsbary.

Through the alliance with Private Motor Coach, Inc., Patty is developing the emerging niche market of volunteer tourism.  Persons booking a trip on “Dolly’s Pride” will have the option to include a volunteer experience as part of their trip.  Patty identifies benevolent international projects which match travelers itinerary, energies, and interests; then, she facilitates the volunteer experience.

In serving government tourism ministries and private travel businesses, Patty will serve as a trusted advisor and consultant.  Research techniques such as interviews, focus groups or operational audits enable her to test new ideas or evaluate existing programs. She delivers feasibility studies and comprehensive reports each offering practical solutions for future tourism development, suggesting global marketing strategies, and identifying recommendations for program implementation.

Publishers can also contract through Global Tourism Solutions, Inc. for Patty to update Europe, Central and South American travel guidebook information or to prepare destination specific articles for publication.

Patty comes from a 30-year career in the philanthropic world where for the past seven-years, as a consultant at Ketchum, she tested the feasibility and planned multi-million-dollar capital and endowment fund raising campaigns for clients.  Most recently, Patty served as the lead fund raising consultant for the USA Swimming Foundation, Palmer Trinity School, and Prairie View A&M University.  Nationwide, she has worked on campaigns for Hospice of West Alabama, Steel Industry Heritage Corporation, Richardson Regional Medical Center and others.  She has managed volunteers at these institutions and from such notable organizations as the American Cancer Society, the Association for Retarded Citizens, and more.

Before entering the non-profit sector, Patty worked as a writer and producer for KQV All-News Radio in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  She has earned an International Master of Business Administration (IMBA) from Point Park University (2000) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and a BS in Communications and Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh (1977).  She is a long-time Rotarian and Past President (1995 - 1996) of the Greensburg Rotary Club. 

Ed Lonsbary

Vice President & General Manager

ed@glotours.com

As Vice President & General Manager, Ed Lonsbary will open the world of travel to people wanting to visit Central and South America in a luxury motorhome/bus conversion.  He will be the primary driver/escort for travel aboard “Dolly’s Pride” – a Prevost coach equipped as a “house on wheels” – and he will maintain the coach for guaranteed reliable operation.

Ed will also be the main character of “Did Somebody Say RV Road Trip?” – a travelogue chronicling RV travel through Central and South America.  The travelogue series will be available for purchase from Global Tourism Solutions, Inc. in 2009.  The show will break the myth that RV travel south of the boarder is “dangerous”, seek out the best places to “boondock”, and take you to the end of the earth in the town of Ushuaia where the road really is a dead end.

Ed describes himself as a “farm boy” from Ingersoll, Ontario.  If you dig more, you’ll find that he is legendary in the world of “innovative travel” and “has wanderlust in his heart.”

Ed attended a one room school - the SS #1 Dereham Township Public School - where each year students advanced a grade by changing to a different row of seats.  He walked to school from the farm some four miles every day.  Ed learned how to farm and feel comfortable around heavy equipment that’s why he can work on motor coaches and skillfully drive them too. 

Until he earned his degree in Manufacturing Technology from Fanshawe College in 1972, Ed worked as a bartender at the Ingersoll Inn.  Over the years, Ed’s career took him from Timberjack in Canada to 25 years in corporate America.  A job with Jacuzzi landed him in Arkansas with a permanent green card to live in the United States.  He worked for DuPont, Dow, and Bayer in engineering, sales and marketing.  His extensive corporate travel made him a “road warrior” and fed his love of being on the road.

Wanderlust and his love for big equipment led Ed to create Private Motor Coach, Inc. in January 1999.  He bought a MCI-9 bus conversion/motor home that he used to take people “Anywhere-Anytime”.  Families, businessmen, people with special needs, and entertainers have all been welcomed aboard the coach he named “Patty’s Charm”.  The United Motor Coach Association honored Ed’s innovative business with the 2001 Vision Award.  Ed opened up a whole new world to travelers, especially those who might not have any other options, or those who might not want to travel the routine way. 

Ed’s come a long way from a farm boy at a one-room school to an entrepreneur who is a legendary innovator in private and international travel.