Franchise Business Review Names Travel Agency Franchise Best-in-Class

Expedia CruiseShipCenters travel franchise is named a top franchise opportunity based on franchisee satisfaction

Franchise Business Review, a leading publication devoted to analysis of franchise systems, recently named Expedia CruiseShipCenters travel agency franchise as a Best Opportunity for 2015, as well as a Franchisee Satisfaction Award Winner.

In order to determine which franchise system made the list of Top 50 Franchises in four categories based on the size of initial investment, the publication surveyed more than 26,000 franchise owners from over 350 franchise systems. The list measures which franchise systems are the best bets based on the level of satisfaction franchise owners feel about their businesses and how their businesses are performing.

Expedia CruiseShipCenters launched in 1987 and is one of the largest sellers of cruise travel in North America. Our travel agency franchise is rapidly expanding, with nearly 200 locations open or under development. Our growth is driven by three overarching realities: our proven business model is affordable to start and extremely scalable, our focus on cruise vacations makes us a trusted resource among cruise customers (who overwhelmingly prefer to book with a travel agent), and the cruise industry is growing quickly.

Expedia CruiseShipCenters franchise owners receive first-rate, ongoing support

One of the reasons that Franchise Business Review honored us with the distinction of being a Franchisee Satisfaction Award Winner is that our owners have turned their passion for travel into a career — they get to help their customers plan their dream vacations! In turn, our corporate team ensures that our Expedia CruiseShipCenters franchise owners get outstanding support every step of the way. We have grown faster than the rest of the cruise industry by building incredible systems that make it easy for franchisees and their travel consultants to share knowledge about destinations and build custom itineraries that suit clients. We also have built a strong culture of teamwork that allows franchisees and team members to build upon one another’s success.

“The training and support from corporate is simply amazing,” says Jennifer White, an Expedia CruiseShipCenters travel franchise owner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “You go through a week of training at the corporate office in Vancouver, which is a lot of information. It’s like, ‘open mouth, insert firehose.’ However, both before and after, you get amazing support with calls and internet meetings. The International Cruise Academy can take someone without prior knowledge all the way through the program and have them ready to start selling. It helps people get up to speed.”

Our travel franchise owners can grow their business as large as they like

The Expedia CruiseShipCenters mission statement is to empower our franchisees with a proven system to grow a profitable and valuable business. Everything we do or create for our franchise partners is in support of that mission. We’re constantly thinking of new and better ways to support the growth and scalability of our travel franchise locations, because the success of our owners drives the success of our brand.

The level of flexibility our model provides is another reason why our travel franchise owners are excited to set sail into their new careers, and part of why Franchise Business Review is so impressed with our business model.

Prospective franchise buyers get excited about that flexibility when they start researching our business opportunity. We set our franchise partners up with a system that’s designed for continuous, sustained growth. At Expedia CruiseShipCenters, there is no limit to how large you can grow your sales team of vacation consultants who sell travel on your behalf, which means the growth potential of a single franchise location is substantial. If you want to take your business to the next level, you increase the size of your team and continue training, motivating, and coaching them to set and exceed their own personal sales goals.

“I definitely would recommend starting an Expedia CruiseShipCenters franchise,” says Joyce Ripka, a travel franchise owner in Quebec, Canada. “Especially if you are interested in getting into the travel business. As long as you are comfortable with the franchise system, and by that I mean that you have to use the Expedia programs and be willing to listen to the corporate team in Vancouver. Otherwise, you will not be getting the value out of the system.”

Learn more about Expedia CruiseShipCenters

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