Fully funded trips to Egypt and Cyprus underline the support, training and lifestyle on offer to new franchisees

The Travel Franchise, also known as Not Just Travel, has taken more than 120 of its travel consultants on fully funded luxury training retreats in a single month, as part of the support it gives people building a travel business from home. 

In October, the home-based travel franchise flew 80 consultants to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt for its first ever overseas Platinum Digital Workshop, and a further 46 to Paphos, Cyprus, for its Millionaire’s Retreat. 

The Egyptian workshop ran from 12 to 16 October at the five-star Rixos Radamis Sharm El Sheikh, hosted by Rixos Hotels with support from easyJet holidays. Co-founder Steve Witt led the event with five members of the head office team, joined by 20 key trade partners who ran one-to-one sessions with consultants. 

Rather than a week of theory, the workshop was hands-on throughout, with consultants creating real content on their phones as they learned. Sessions covered photography and video, the social platforms that generate enquiries, content that converts, email marketing and Google, all aimed at getting consultants ready for Peaks, the January booking surge. 

The results came quickly. Consultant Jo McCaffery, who had always avoided appearing on camera, created a reel in the resort and posted it on Facebook. It has since been viewed 45,000 times and generated 12 enquiries, and several other consultants secured bookings from their posts while still in Egypt. 

“We don’t hand consultants a website and leave them to it,” said Steve Witt. “We train them properly and support them as their business grows. That includes putting them on a plane and taking them to the world’s most Instagrammable resorts. In the fourth quarter alone we’re taking more than 230 consultants overseas.” 

At the same time, 46 consultants, all relatively new to their businesses, attended the company’s Millionaire’s Retreat from 13 to 17 October at the Constantinou Bros Athena Beach Hotel in Paphos, led by Head of Sales Dave Pope. Sessions focused on mindset, understanding why consultants run their business, growing their customer database and leaving with a clear action plan, with further work on sales technique and knowing their numbers. Stuart Rust of Beachcomber Tours joined as a key trade partner to run a session, and the hotel hosted a gala dinner and a cookery lesson. 

“Everyone here has bonded as colleagues and collaborators,” said Dave Pope. “Getting to know their numbers is critical in entrepreneurship, and we’ve focused on sales techniques and the fundamentals of repeat business. It’s been transformative for our consultants in so many ways.” 

The retreats are part of what makes the opportunity distinctive. On the company’s Elite package, travel is built into the business from the start. It includes two fully funded luxury retreats, the Millionaire’s Retreat and the Elite Experience, with recent trips to Mauritius, Dubai and Japan, along with Platinum events such as the Egypt workshop, Seminars at Sea where training takes place on board a cruise, and ski and golf trips designed to help consultants learn and sell those specialist holidays. Consultants are also regularly invited on familiarisation trips by suppliers to experience hotels, resorts and cruises first-hand, often free or heavily subsidised. 

Around 98 per cent of the people who join The Travel Franchise have never worked in travel before, and full training and support are provided from day one. 

“If you’re going to teach social media, you need somewhere stunningly visual that gives consultants great content to work with, and easyJet holidays and Rixos Radamis Sharm El Sheikh more than delivered,” added Steve Witt. “This was our first overseas digital workshop, but based on its success, it won’t be the last.” 

About The Travel Franchise / Not Just Travel 

The Travel Franchise is the franchise arm of Not Just Travel, one of the UK’s largest and fastest-growing travel businesses. Co-founded by Steve Witt and Paul Harrison, it has spent more than 20 years helping people from all walks of life build their own travel business from home, the vast majority with no previous travel experience. 

The company has been named the world’s best lifestyle franchise for two years running. It offers packages to suit different stages and budgets, from the lower-cost Lite Mentorship Programme, starting from £995, to the flagship Elite package, which includes the fully funded luxury retreats and the Money Back Challenge, where franchisees who hit a set target in their first year earn their entire franchise fee back. Consultants are supported by a dedicated business consultant from day one and backed by the buying power and supplier relationships of Not Just Travel and Hays Travel.