Travel consultant Paula joined the business in 2017 and went on to get her business free with the Money-Back Challenge. Find out how being an overseas wedding specialist helped her do it.
After taking voluntary redundancy in 2016, Paula decided to start her own travel agency. She researched all the options and chose The Travel Franchise because it gave her everything she needed in one place – fantastic products & commissions, customer protection, back-office support and ongoing training.
In Paula’s video below, she explains how her passion for overseas weddings helped grow her travel business within a specific niche – and get her business for free.
Paula goes above and beyond for customers
When Paula books overseas weddings, she doesn’t just make flight and hotel arrangements. She works from the very start of the process.
“I do everything for the wedding,” says Paula. “Liaising directly with the hotels and venues, working with the wedding planners. I do it because it’s my passion.”
She also creates pre-wedding itineraries for her clients where they can visit the destination to really get a feel for where they’ll be married. And Paula truly goes the extra mile, by going with clients on the trip to make sure everything runs smoothly.
She accompanied one client recently to Naples where they chose the Villa Antiche Mura for their wedding based on experiencing it first hand.
“Having spent time with the bride I took her there as I knew what she wanted. As we were leaving she told me ‘I have to get married here’. It’s so beautiful, the photos are going to be sensational.”
Paula is also invited to attend a lot of the weddings in a professional capacity, to ensure everything goes to plan.
“I never drink with the guests. I never eat with the guests,” she told us. I’m there to work and be there for them.”
Overseas weddings can be high value
Paula’s largest wedding to date has recently taken place in Cancun. This booking was for over £106k and involved 50 guests.
Other wedding locations have included the Maldives, Santorini and even an ice castle!
They take a lot of care and attention, but are also very lucrative.
Plus Paula books plenty of smaller weddings abroad where she doesn’t need to attend.
One wedding creates lots of new customers and bookings
A great thing about going to & helping organise so many overseas weddings is that it automatically introduces Paula to lots of new customers.
Along with her hard work, it’s part of how she managed to beat her Money-Back Challenge and get her business for free.
In our Discovery Tour, you can hear Paul Harrison explain in more detail why weddings are a good source of customers and the extra bookings they create.
That’s certainly the case for Paula.
Guests at just one recent wedding have already created over £100k in extra business, including:
- A £40,000 holiday to Dubai, India and the Maldives
- A £36,000 holiday to Machu Pichu, the Amazon and Brazil
- £20,000 holiday to the Maldives next February
- 3 more weddings over the next two years.
- Multiple stag and hen parties, honeymoons and more.
Paula doesn’t just do overseas weddings
Paula isn’t limited to selling overseas weddings, even though that’s what she’s passionate about.
She can sell anything our suppliers have to offer.
For example, she absolutely loves cruising and just sold a £50k cruise. She’s also chosen to become a cruise sales expert with our unique Cruise Mastery training program.
Find out more about the Cruise Mastery program in the video below.
You don’t have to specialise in just one area
The beauty of The Travel Franchise is that it gives you an instant travel agency that you choose how to run. With hundreds of suppliers and millions of ABTA bonded and ATOL protected holidays, that means you can specialise in anything you want, if you decide to.
You don’t have to focus on anything if you don’t want to, but it can help to have the option.
Other consultants (like Raine) are known for family holidays. Others focus on Disney. You can focus on adventure or luxury holidays – or specialise in certain destinations.
Our suppliers are on hand to help you learn all about the different types of travel you can sell, with dedicated training and trips.
And you can pick multiple areas to specialise in at once.
We also have lots of focussed marketing you can use to give yourself instant credibility, such as website pages for specific types of holidays that you can see above.
You really can sell any holiday to anyone, as well as specialising in travel that fits your knowledge and passion.
Would you love to be booking travel like Paula?
