Carlson Companies

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Carlson Companies is a privately held international company in the marketing, service, travel, and hospitality industries. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the United States, as of 2005 Carlson Companies owned 5,300 travel agencies, an incentive travel and marketing company plus over 1,700 hotels, resorts, restaurants, and cruise ships. Some of its subsidiaries include:

Carlson Wagonlit Travel
T.G.I. Friday's restaurants
Country Inns & Suites by Carlson
Park Inn Hotels
Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts
Radisson Hotels
Regent International Hotels
Carlson Marketing Group - provider of reward and incentive programs to other companies

Carlson was started in 1938 by founder Curtis L. Carlson as the "Gold Bond Trading Company" which provided consumer incentive programs for grocery stores (particularly the Gold Bond Trading Stamps). Revenue from this business was brisk until the late 1960s, at which time trading stamps began to lose popularity and the company was renamed "Carlson Companies" in 1973 as it diversified into various hospitality and travel industries.

However, in a return to its roots, the Carlson Companies started an electronic consumer incentive program named GoldPoints.com in 1996. The program is not only used at Carlson properties such as TGI Fridays restaurants and Radisson Hotels & Resorts, but also at major grocery, and department stores and major online retailers.