Catching Up with Gifted Travel Network’s Jen Cochrane

When Gifted Travel Network CEO and co-founder Jen Cochrane took the stage at her host agency’s annual conference last month, she began her presentation by reflecting on the nature of change.

“Change is often disruptive, and it’s often not comfortable,” she said. “And it’s also inevitable, and it’s necessary.”

Cochrane has watched the company she co-founded undergo significant change over the last year. Trevello World Holdings Inc. acquired GTN at the beginning of the year.

As Cochrane told the crowd of Gifted travel advisors, change can be a force for good: “If we’re not changing, we can’t grow; we can’t innovate; we can’t get better,” she argued. “We absolutely need to change in order to improve.”

Travel Market Report had the opportunity to sit down with Jen Cochrane to discuss the latest developments at Gifted Travel Network and where the company is headed in 2026 and beyond.

Why Trevello Is A Game-Changer for GTN

Cochrane told TMR that there was some concern among the GTN travel advisor community when news broke of the Trevello acquisition; however, she believes strongly that the Canadian host agency is a strong fit for their niche.

“Advisors [were] nervous because they love GTN’s community so much. But the reality is that nothing changes for them day to day—we’re focused on preserving what makes GTN special,” explained Cochrane. “We are a good fit for Trevello because we are different from the Trevello brand.”

Trevello’s approach to the acquisition was to maintain the current leadership at Gifted, and to roll out a U.S. Trevello brand in the near future. As Cochrane explained, this will benefit GTN’s advisors because it will allow them to potentially move over to Trevello if it proves to be a better fit (and vice versa).

“Both brands complement each other,” she told TMR, noting that while both do luxury, Trevello is better suited for more broad sales opportunities, while Gifted is better suited for more specifically high-touch luxury.

On a day-to-day basis, nothing has changed for advisors; however, Trevello’s larger size and 30-plus years in the market are a major advantage for GTN. So far, the main advantage has been with supplier relations: since the acquisition, Gifted Travel Network has been able to leverage Trevello’s sales numbers to renegotiate for better commission rates, such as with cruise line Princess.

The benefits, of course, go both ways.

“[Trevello has] much better insights and strategies of how to manage those sorts of things to continue to increase our partnerships and leverage our partnerships,” said Cochrane. “They take a much more analytical approach, which we need to do more of. And we take a more relationship-focused approach, which I think is partly what makes us special.”

Cross-Border Potential with Trevello

One of the obvious benefits for Trevello acquiring Gifted Travel Network is that it gave the Canadian host agency access to the U.S. market. As the company works towards rolling out its own U.S. Trevello brand, Cochrane said it’s possible that a Gifted host agency could be introduced to the Canadian market, as well.

“In Canada, there isn’t really an option like GTN at all,” said Cochrane.

The CEO recalled that GTN used to serve Canadian advisors through its sister company GIFTE—a mentorship program for travel agency owners that focused on marketing and business strategies. Another major change this year, GTN sunset GIFTE in 2022, shifting to focus on the host agency and its own in-house training programs, Travel MBA and Accelerate.

“Back when we had GIFTE, we were able to serve both Canadian and American advisors. We actually had quite a few Canadians that were part of our Diamond Mastermind program. They were fantastic and we loved them.”

Cochrane told TMR that Trevello’s existing presence in Canada is a significant advantage to trying to start a GTN arm north of the border.

“GTN has not been able to host Canadian advisors, but we will be able to going forward because we can leverage Trevello, Canada’s TICO affiliation, and all that kind of stuff,” she explained. “We have the US Market expertise that we can share with [Trevello] and they have the Canadian market expertise that they can share with us. And we should be able to serve both brands in both markets, eventually.”

On Vanessa McGovern’s Exit & Succession Plans

In April 2025, GTN co-founder and chief sales and marketing officer Vanessa McGovern left the company to join Global Travel Collection as senior vice president of partner product, marketing and events.

Cochrane told TMR that she was “fully supportive of Vanessa taking on this new challenge,” noting that the timing was right for McGovern to make the move.

“We had an amazing time together cofounding GTN,” said Cochrane.

The CEO was quick to praise McGovern’s tenacity in this business, and said the opportunity with Global Travel Collection was a positive direction for her friend and former colleague.

“Vanessa was a big part of GTN,” said Cochrane, reflecting on how the company’s needs have changed dramatically over the last 10 years.

“What we needed at the time that we started GTN and what we need today are different,” Cochrane explained. “One of the things that Vanessa is really brilliant at is getting attention on things … Her ability to get in front of people and to get us that attention that we needed as we were coming up as a brand [is] probably the best in the industry.”

When asked if there were plans to fill McGovern’s role in the future, Cochrane said for now, she and other executives have taken on those responsibilities.

“Now everybody knows us, so we don’t really need to replace that part of what Vanessa did,” said Cochrane. “Right now, I am running the partner relations team because I feel like that is the best way to decide what we need for that going forward.”

Women in Power: Cochrane’s Thoughts on Leadership Strategy

When asked if there’s a key to success in the travel business, Cochrane pointed to the theme of change that permeated this year’s GTN conference.

“Entrepreneurs need to be outside their comfort zone, and it takes a fair amount of energy and stamina to keep moving, and keep evolving, and keep rolling with it,” she explained.

“I think that the people who are successful have that passion, and they also have the ability to not get waylaid by analysis, paralysis, or imposter syndrome,” she added. “The ones who fizzle out essentially put both a practical and energetic cap on how well they’re gonna do, because they don’t have the risk tolerance to just take a leap of faith and throw themselves into the next phase.”

In terms of her own success as a leader in the travel industry, Cochrane credits her collaborative management style.

“I give people a lot of autonomy and a lot of support,” she said. “I like to have an environment where people feel really comfortable collaborating. My personal philosophy is that none of us is as smart individually as all of us are collectively. And so it’s really important that every voice be heard.”

Looking back on her own career, Cochrane said she is most proud of having fostered a community at GTN that helps advisors chase their passions and change the trajectories of their careers.

“I am most proud of the successes that we see among our advisor community,” she told TMR.

“A lot of the success stories are advisors who came to us through our travel MBA program. So they were coming from other industries, and we helped them from the very beginning,” Cochrane explained. “To go from just being really passionate about travel to [becoming] a top producer or cruise icon … that’s really amazing.”

Cochrane also credits the family-like support structure that GTN embodies, where travel advisors can learn from their peers and get practical advice on how to run their travel business.

“I’m proud of what we built at GTN, but what I, what really makes me feel fulfilled, is seeing them succeed.”