ABOUT US

Find our more about the company and people

Welcome to the family

In the past decade, The Travel Franchise and Not Just Travel has grown into a powerhouse in the UK travel opportunity sector.

To date, hundreds of people have invested in a franchise with us and become part of the family.

But our incredible franchises that create instant travel businesses are only part of the story. Every day, people from all walks of life join us to create a new lifestyle for themselves.

We see our job as helping develop people into the best entrepreneurs they can be as they embark on this new journey.

After all it’s no good being a great travel consultant if the phone never rings. Take a look at our Discovery Centre to find out more about how you could become a successful travel business owner.

Meet the team

Behind the scenes at The Travel Franchise we have a dedicated team of travel professionals, entrepreneurs and business experts who help build your perfect travel business. 

Remember, we only make money if you make money so our sole purpose is to help you develop more and more sales.

Our 40+ core team is based at our head offices next to Bournemouth International Airport, but we also have key team members and support staff all around the UK – available to help you seven days a week.

Steve Witt​

CO-FOUNDER​

A serial entrepreneur, Steve previously founded and sold the UK’s fourth-largest domain names company.

Paul Harrison​

CO-FOUNDER​​

Paul built several multi-million home-based-businesses before creating The Travel Franchise from Not Just Travel.

Daley Thompson

BRAND CHAMPION

Daley Thompson, CBE is here to help you succeed as The Travel Franchise Brand Champion. He appears at events and provides you with Olympian motivation!

Darren Thompson​

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

A founding investor and board director for loveholidays, Darren helped it become the 10th fastest growing UK private company in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.

Derek Jones

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

With over 30 years’ experience in the travel and formerly CEO of Der Touristik UK and MD of Kuoni Derek is helping drive NJT’s next rapid phase of growth.

Chris Harrison

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER

Formerly head of trade sales, trade purchasing and distribution director at Thomas Cook and MD of Dawson & Sanderson, Chris heads up NJT business development.

Daley Thompson​

BRAND CHAMPION​

Daley Thompson, CBE is here to help you succeed as The Travel Franchise Brand Champion. He appears at events and provides you with Olympian motivation!

Donna Stonehouse​

HEAD OF PEOPLE

Donna spearheads our huge recruitment drive and plays the lead role in NJT employees’ wellbeing, reward and recognition programme, plus their learning and development journey.

Claire Smith

Head of Legal and Compliance

Claire has worked for NJT for 17 years and heads up NJT’s legal and compliance department. After taking a law degree and qualifying as a solicitor, she’s now in charge of NJT’s legal department and the onboarding process.

Laura Simpson

HEAD OF EXPERIENCE & OPERATIONS

Laura has worked in the travel industry for over 25 years and heads up a team which provides administration support and concierge services to every agent.

Paul Farquhar

Financial controller

Paul heads up the finance team and processes every penny that is paid in and out, analysing every department to help with the future growth planning.

Jenny Farenden

Head of franchise marketing

Jenny has worked for 16 years in marketing, half in franchising, and has experience turning a small service business into one of the UK’s largest franchises.

Ed Ramsay

SPECIAL OPERATIONS

Ed ensures consultants have all the technical and online managerial tools they need to deliver exceptional service to their customers.

Jenny Farenden

Financial controller

Jenny has worked for 16 years in marketing, half in franchising, and has experience turning a small service business into one of the UK’s largest franchises.

Jenny Farenden​

Head of franchise marketing

Jenny has worked for 16 years in marketing, half in franchising, and has experience turning a small service business into one of the UK’s largest franchises. 

Become part of an award winning company

LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders
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Our Co-Founders Steve and Paul have recently been recognised at a major award for their entrepreneurship, run by Lloyds Bank & The Daily Telegraph where they were recognised as one of the Top 50 “Ones To Watch” in the UK.

Homeworking Agency of the Year 2015 - 2019
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We’re proud to have been voted the Homeworking Agency of the Year every year since 2015. We’re extremely proud of the hard work from our team & our consultants make sure we live up to our name year after year.

NatWest GBEA Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019
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We’re delighted to be finalists in the 2019 SouthWest Entrepreneur of the Year awards from NatWest. Entrepreneurial spirit runs right through the business and it’s an honour to be recognised for our achievements. 

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OUR HISTORY

Not Just Travel is formed

We started life as a travel agency, becoming one of the largest advertisers on Teletext and operating in several niches

2001

The Travel Franchise is formed

The Travel Franchise is formed and Not Just Travel becomes the travel-agency support function for franchisees

2010

We reach 50 franchisees

After launching we undergo rapid growth and create our first 50 franchisees. Agata, our first franchisee, is still with us and now has 4 employees

2011

Launch of Millionaires Retreat & Money-Back Challenge

As our franchise model evolved, our passion for entrepreneurship grew. In 2013 we launched both the exclusive Millionaires Retreat & Money-Back Challenge initiatives

2013

First franchisee reaches £1m in sales

We love seeing people be successful, so having our first franchisee cross the million-pound sales barrier was a proud moment. This was also the year Partners In Travel was created

2014

We win Homeworking Agency Of The Year for the first time

This was the first year we won the prestigious T2 award. We've won it every year since

2015

Brand Ambassador Daley Thompson & John Hays join the business

Daley Thompson CBE becomes the Not Just Travel Brand Ambassador. John Hays from Hays Travel also joins our advisory board

2016

Franchisees continue to break records

This year saw one of our franchisees cross the £2m annual sales barrier for the first time. We also created our Star Council

2018

Learn how it works instantly!

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