The group
A family business that became a group.
Five brands, three generations and 44 years of travel. Ownership has never left the family.
Balslev is a Norwegian travel group based at Rosenholmveien 25 in Trollåsen, roughly twenty minutes south of central Oslo. It has organised group travel since 1982 and today operates five specialist brands covering corporate travel, international trade fairs, tailor-made holidays, active travel and cultural journeys.
What began as sending Norwegian companies abroad has grown, but the ownership has not moved. The Balslev family has held the business throughout, and the third generation is now actively involved in running it.
In autumn 2023 Expert Reiser adopted the Balslev name, and the nine brands the group had accumulated were reduced to five clearly defined ones.
History
From one departure to five brands.
The travel industry has been rebuilt since the 1980s: paper tickets became apps, high street branches became platforms, and agents became self-service. Through all of it, one thing has stayed put here – whoever books a trip gets a person to deal with.
What has changed is the tooling. We build systems that give consultants a better overview, not systems that replace them. People travel to celebrate, to learn, to work and occasionally to say goodbye. That is not a job to automate away.
- 1982The first group departure. The year the business dates itself from.
- 1983Nordmanns-Reiser begins building tailor-made holidays for private clients.
- 1984Expert Reiser AS is incorporated on 9 April.
- Mid-1980sMessereiser starts up in Drammen, taking Norwegian firms to trade fairs.
- 1996Maxpulse is founded, taking Norwegians to Marcialonga and Vasaloppet.
- 2018Temareiser Fredrikstad AS is registered as the group's cultural travel arm.
- 2023Expert Reiser adopts the Balslev name, and nine brands are consolidated into five.
Ownership
The family behind the group.
All four owners sit on the board of Expert Reiser AS. Kim Balslev is managing director and chair. Maiken Balslev leads the corporate and trade fair business, and Siv Anne Balslev is project manager for training travel at Maxpulse.
Kim Balslev
Owner and chair of the board
Maiken Balslev
Owner
Siv Anne Balslev
Owner
June Arlen Lundeby
Owner
The handover between the second and third generation happens one share at a time, and the previous owners are still around. Jørn Balslev was one of the owners until his daughter Siv Anne took over his share. There are four owners, and each holding has passed down its own line. Jørn has retired, but still guides the occasional group for Temareiser Fredrikstad.
That is how a family firm changes hands. Not with a press release, but with someone who keeps turning up.
What we stand for
Six things we can be held to.
Values are easy to write and hard to live by. These six are here because you can check whether we keep them.
Expertise before speed
Our consultants have usually been to the place themselves. That is why you get a straight answer rather than a link to a search form.
One name to deal with
You get one contact for the whole trip, not a queue. Call again next month and it is the same person who picks up.
Answered in Norway
We sit in Norway, and the 24-hour emergency line is staffed from here. At three in the morning that matters more than it sounds on paper.
International reach
Reed & Mackay and Arrive Agencies give us agreements and people on the ground abroad. The follow-up stays with us.
Protection as a floor, not a feature
The travel guarantee, the Package Travel Act and IATA accreditation are not things we sell. They are what we stand on.
Measured in decades
The family owns the business. That lets us choose what is right in ten years over what looks good at the next quarter.
Company facts
The registry entry.
Everything below can be verified in the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises.
- Trading name
- Balslev, adopted autumn 2023
- Legal name
- Expert Reiser AS
- Company registration number
- 935 566 843
- Incorporated
- 9 April 1984
- Trading since
- 1982
- Ownership
- Family-owned, third generation
- Managing director
- Kim Balslev
- Business address
- Rosenholmveien 25, 1414 Trollåsen, Norway
- Brands
- Nordmannsreiser, Expert Reiser, Temareiser Fredrikstad, Maxpulse, Messereiser
- Subsidiaries
- Maxpulse AS (991 393 056), Messereiser AS (913 841 557), Temareiser Fredrikstad AS (920 383 580)
- Industry code
- NACE 79.11 travel agency activities, 79.90 other reservation services
- Financial security
- Norwegian Travel Guarantee Fund, Norwegian Package Travel Act, IATA accreditation
- International partners
- Reed & Mackay (corporate travel), Arrive Agencies (agency network)
Read on
See the five brands, what the group delivers, or how we approach sustainability.