The existence of the Excursion Committee preceded the establishment of the Polish Alliance of Canada Travel Agency. The first Excursion Committee was established in January 1959, and its first chairperson was J. Pankowski. The Committee operated at PAC Branch 1’s domicile at 62 Claremont Street, and its task was to organize trips to Poland for tourists, as well as to renew and to narrow the good relations between Poland and the Polish-Canadian community.

Regardless of extensive advertising, only two trips for a few people were organized, so the Committee ceased to exist in 1960. The Excursion Committee organized by PAC Branch 2 in Hamilton and led by the Branch’s President Stefan Daciuk was more successful. Working closely with the Head Executive Board, the Committee organized the first trip to Poland for 80 people by the summer of 1960.

In the next few years, its work was expanded to encompass all Alliance branches. The Committee organized chartered flights to Poland and sightseeing excursions to the most beautiful places in the Old Country, which were very popular among the participants. In 1964, the PAC Head Executive Board completely took over Branch 2’s Excursion Committee’s work and began to organize group trips to Poland for Alliance members, as well as to direct chartered flights for people in Poland who wanted to visit their close ones in Canada.

Interestingly, the number of tourists increased continuously; for example, in 1973, their number surpassed a thousand people. This growing demand for chartered flights to Poland forced the Committee to sign more contracts with LOT Polish Airlines to book flights for various dates and seasons. In 1972, the Committee became the official representative of “Orbis,” which greatly facilitated the organization of trips around Poland.

The following year, High Park Travel, Syrena Travel and the PAC Excursion Committee established a consortium having exclusivity in making flight contracts and in selling flight tickets for the Toronto-Warsaw-Toronto trajectory to other agencies and individuals.

The increase in the Committee’s accomplishments from year to year was mainly due to Stanislaw Konopka and Tadeusz Glista, PAC Head Executive Board presidents, and to their general secretaries (Jozef Broda, Stanislaw Leszczynski, Gustaw Slodkowski, Jerzy Dobrzanski, Stefan Kacperski, and Michal Wolnik), who were responsible for running the office.

The Committee’s success would have been much smaller, if not for regional representatives, very devoted Alliance members. The active and financially successful work of the Excursion Committee was honoured when the PAC Head Executive Board registered it with the Ontario government as a Travel Agency having full rights under the name “PAC Travel and Tours Limited” and operating at 1640 Bloor Street West in Toronto.

The Polish Alliance of Canada was the Travel Agency’s owner, while the PAC Travel and Tours Ltd. management chosen by the Head Executive Board was its supervisor. The Agency’s first managers and advisors were T. Glista, C. Smith, M. Wolnik, F. Kossecki and H. Lopinski.

The Agency joined the International Air Travel Association (IATA), which allowed it to represent other airlines. At the same time, it became the representative of PEKAO.

The Agency’s development significantly contributed to LOT receiving a license for regular Warsaw-Montreal flights twice a week. The Agency’s good operation guaranteed a continuous financial source for the Alliance for many years, in order to maintain the organization’s office and to pay the secretary. The formation of the new PEKAO Travel Agency near the PAC’s domicile severely halted the inflow of new clients to the PAC Agency.

The travel agents, who were Polish Alliance of Canada members, also influenced the Agency’s worsening financial situation because they began to work in the interest of PEKAO instead of their own Agency. Substandard interpersonal relations, mutual complaints and disputes added to this. As a result of these activities, PAC Travel and Tours Ltd. was closed in 1995.

One of the most prosperous Alliance institutions ceased to exist. A few years later, The Polish Alliance of Canada also lost the building on Bloor Street West, which included its own domicile.