Ejlif Egon Richard Søndergaard Krogager (5 February 1910 – 7 January 1992) was a Danish

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, who founded the travel agency

Nordisk Bustrafik Nordisk is a Scandinavian word meaning Nordic. It is commonly found in the names of various entities and organizations based in the Nordic countries, including: * Nordisk Copyright Bureau, Danish copyright collecting society * Nordisk Film, Danis ...

in 1951 which evolved into the multi-national company

Tjæreborg Rejser Tjæreborg may refer to: *Tjæreborg, Denmark Tjæreborg is a village with a population of 2,956 (1 January 2025)Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he was active in the

Danish resistance movement The Danish resistance movements () were an underground insurgency to resist the German occupation of Denmark during World War II. Due to the initially lenient arrangements, in which the Nazi occupation authority allowed the democratic govern ...

. After the war he entered the

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

business by founding Nordisk Bustrafik in 1951, offering affordable bus trips for Danish tourists. The business developed into Tjæreborg Rejser, which started a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

subsidiary in 1973, becoming the fourth largest

travel agency A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destina ...

in that country within 3 years. In 1962 he and Jørgen Størling founded

Sterling Airways Sterling Airlines A/S was a low-cost airline with its head office at Copenhagen Airport South in Dragør, Dragør Municipality, Denmark. It was created in September 2005 through the merger of two Danish airlines — Sterling European Airlin ...

, which offered

charter flights Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

from Billund. On the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

island of

Lanzarote Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands, off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the islands in the archipelago. With 163,230 inhabi ...

Ejlif bought an existing but unfinished development in 1978 for its housing capacity. But together with Danish cycling champion Willy Beckmann he developed the idea of a resort for active holidays. The resort opened, as one of few on Lanzarote at the time, on 22 June 1983 as Club La Santa offering sports facilities for active holiday goers. In 1968 Sterling Airways was bought out of Tjæreborg Group. Tjæreborg Rejser was sold to

Janni Spies Janni Spies (née Brodersen, born 19 September 1962) is a Danish businesswoman, multimillionaire, and former owner of the Scandinavian travelling empire including the charter airline Conair of Scandinavia, companies she inherited from her first ...

, owner of Danish travel agency Spies, on 3 January 1989. The German subsidiary had already been sold eight years before. Club La Santa, however, was not part of these transactions and is still controlled and operated by the Krogager family.

References

External links

Ejlif's tombstone at gravsted.dk
1910 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Danish businesspeople {{Denmark-business-bio-stub