GENEVA For 52 years, Cole Travel Service arranged tours and vacations all over the world, but especially for folks traveling to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other Scandinavian countries.

We did Scandinavian travel all over the U.S., said Barbara Cox, who managed the travel agency for 28 years. We are the ones to call for Scandinavian travel. We did so good for so many years. But in the last six years, there was a huge slow down. We still did Scandinavia travel, which is what we specialized in, but it was not enough to keep the business going.

Cox said she would retire now that Cole Travel, at 310 W. State St. in Geneva, will close June 1.

The travel agency shares the same space with The Gift Box, specializing in Scandinavian imports, which will stay open.

Gift Box manager Jane Gaffney said the travel agency space likely would be made into the Christmas room to hold specialty holiday items.

We sell Swedish coffee, medium and dark Arvid Nordquist brand and Lofbergs Lila, Gaffney said. We have chocolate, candies, cookies, Bing and Grondahl and Royal Copenhagen Blue plates. We also serve glogg during the Christmas walk, which we make ourselves from a recipe from the 1700s. And we also carry lutefisk once a year at Christmas.

Lutefisk is a traditional Nordic dish of dried salted whitefish saturated with lye.

The travel agencys original owner, Edythe Anderson, opened the business in 1960 as an additional service to customers of the Gift Box, which opened in 1947.

The current owner, Lennart Jonsson, contributed to the success of both businesses because of his extensive knowledge of Scandinavian countries.

An immigrant from Sweden, Lennart, 87, of St. Charles, said it was unfortunate the travel agency could not support itself any longer.

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Cole Travel in Geneva closes after 52 years