How Two Very Different Agencies Landed in TTAND’s Top 10

The stories of travel agency owners Devyn Perry and Travis Stewart couldn’t be more different.

The two founded their travel businesses ten years apart, but together represent the scope of The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) agencies: Devyn joined just this year, while Travis has been with the company since TTAND’s beginning. But, despite all that, both are in TTANDs’s Top 10 agencies.

Devyn is a Toronto-based newcomer who left a lucrative corporate career to follow her dream, while Travis is an East Coaster who first embarked on his travel advisor journey back in the mid-’90s, working for other agencies before becoming independent in 2014.

Devyn and Travis were attracted to a host agency for the same reasons: after years of working for other people, they were ready to be their own boss – and TTAND offered flexibility, efficiency, and support while they built their new businesses.

Flemming Friisdahl founded the Travel Agent Next Door in 2014 to address the need in Canada for “better systems, tools, and just better support,” he told TMR.

“I had a good idea of what travel agents needed, because of my position with Thomas Cook as senior vice president of sales. This had given me a very unique insight into their needs. I still tell people I am a support position and not a retailer, as I would be a terrible travel agent, but I love supporting travel agents!!” said Friisdahl.

That promise of support is what drew Travis to TTAND.

Travis Stewart is the founder and CEO of Stewart Travel Group, an award-winning PEI-based agency that specializes in hosted group tours. The company is TTAND’s top agency. Impressive, especially considering this agency is based in Charlottetown; although it’s PEI’s capital city, the population is under 40,000.

In the last decade, Travis and Paula have grown their travel business from a two-person operation to a team of 13 travel advisors, serving 12,000 clients in countries around the world. Travis credits relationship building as the key ingredient to their success.

“[This business] is about taking care of people, and for us, that’s continuing to be connected with them – not only through social media, but also doing lots of events,” Travis said.

And he isn’t afraid to give clients a warm, Maritime welcome when he sees them in person.

“We’re almost like the Huggy Travel Agency,” he joked.

“It was scary times”

After 20 years in the industry working for other people, Travis left his operations manager position to strike out as an independent. His wife Paula Stewart, who had been at the same travel company, followed suit a few months later, and they founded Stewart Travel Group in September 2014.

Despite having a leg up from previous experience in the industry, taking that leap of faith into entrepreneurship was a daunting move for Travis and Paula. The household income depended on what sales they could bring in, and they were starting from scratch – Travis left his employer without bringing a single client with him, and at that point he hadn’t sold travel for eight years. Luckily, he had Paula’s support to keep him going.

“Paula believed in me,” said Travis. “We left with not one name, not one client – nothing. … But she really believed in me and what we could do.”

The two started off by hitting the books – phone books, that is. They would leaf through the pages looking for names they recognized and cold call, introducing the new business and slowly building up a client base.

It was rough going in those early days, and by January, Travis was having doubts. He recalled a particularly dark stretch where they didn’t get a single phone call or email for three days straight.

“I looked out the window and thought, ‘What the heck did I do? I think I ruined our lives,’” he said. “I don’t know if it was a higher power, but I remember thinking to myself, ‘Well Travis, you can’t bury your head in the snow.’ … Within five minutes, the phone rang. The emails started coming in, and it never stopped.”

This was the turning point for Stewart Travel Group.

A personal touch

Travis and Paula built their travel business on personal connections. At a time when brick-and-mortar travel agencies were still the norm in PEI, the couple invited clients into their home, offering treats like wine and fudge. They’ve worked hard to maintain this culture within the business, ensuring their advisors go the extra mile to take care of client needs.

Frances Gertsch, Stewart Travel Group’s trusted senior travel advisor and manager, business development and talent, has found that clients from the Maritimes need a bit more support when traveling abroad. “They’re really excited to learn about new places that they haven’t been,” she told TMR. “When they travel [to new places], they like to travel with us as hosts – they like to be taken care of.”

That emphasis on relationships has paid off. Last year, Stewart Travel Group won the 2023 Excellence in Customer Service Award from the Greater Charlottetown Area Chamber of Commerce, which Travis accepted in front of 500 businesses.

“It was a full circle moment – we did exactly what we said we were going to do,” Travis told TMR. “To be recognized for that in front of our peers locally was a very special moment for us.”

His advice for other ICs? Remember to think like a business owner.

“Independent advisors are entrepreneurs – really take that to heart and embed it in you,” he told TMR. “There are lots of sacrifices and a huge commitment.”

He also recommends taking the time to figure out what works for your business and carving out a specialty, rather than jumping in with a set niche in mind.

“Unless you have a connection with something … I think you need to wait and just find your position,” he advised.

Once you do know what works for your business, spend time developing that niche: “Carve out something that you and you alone are an expert on, and do not be afraid to tell people that.”

Devyn Perry Travel

Just as Travis and Paula are getting ready to celebrate Stewart Travel Group’s 10-year anniversary, another successful TTAND agency is getting ready to celebrate its first.

Devyn Perry founded her travel business at the end of August 2023. Less than one year in, she made TTAND’s top 10, hit her year three numbers, and brought on two part-time employees to help with the workload.

“I thought I would have a casual first year,” Perry told TMR. “That’s not what happened in any way – quite the opposite.”

Perry herself was surprised by how quickly she reached personal goals, like attracting a professional athlete client and selling her first Africa vacation.

“I wanted to sell five trips a month my first year, and then go to ten. I’ve sold hundreds of trips,” she told TMR. “I just wanted to be able to pay my bills … I have been humbled by my success immensely.”

Unlike Travis and Paula Stewart, Perry had virtually no experience in the travel industry before deciding to switch careers and launch Devyn Perry Travel. Clearly, being a newcomer hasn’t held her back.

From advertising to entrepreneurship

After a stint working in Vancouver’s film scene, Perry worked her way up the corporate ladder, eventually landing executive leadership roles in marketing and sales. She found a lot of success, winning awards and gaining industry recognition. “I had a pretty lucrative career,” she told TMR.

Like many of us, Perry found herself questioning her priorities during the pandemic. “I always felt like it wasn’t the right thing for me,” she said, reflecting on her past career. “I always thought I should be doing something entrepreneurial.”

More importantly, Perry wanted a career where she felt like she was making a difference in people’s lives. She already loved travel – becoming a travel advisor was the perfect fit.

“I walked into my husband’s office one day and said, ‘what if I want to start a travel company?’ He said, ‘you don’t know how to do that,’” she recalled. “‘I said, ‘I didn’t know how to work in the film industry, and I didn’t how to work in advertising, and I did pretty well! So I think I can figure this out,” she said, laughing.

The skills she honed managing media strategy for clients like Rogers Communications and Proctor & Gamble have proved useful.

“Advertising is not that different from travel,” she explained to TMR. “You have a company or a person that has a budget and an objective that they want to achieve, whether it’s ‘I want to see beautiful places,’ or ‘I want to reach 80% of the population to introduce them to my product.’… There’s a psychological element to advertising, just as there is to travel.”

Selling ultra, ultra luxury

Thanks to the network she developed over her corporate career, Perry had no issue getting clients early on. She had maintained a positive relationship with many people over the years, who embraced her new business venture with enthusiasm.

“I had clients I worked with 12 years ago who reached out right away for me to book trips for them,” she said.

Although it’s too early to have a clearly defined niche, Perry has already found great success servicing the luxury market – thanks to so many of her clients being from the corporate world.

“I actually sell more luxury than I thought I would,” she said. “Ultra, ultra luxury … I was surprised by the amount of luxury that I started selling out of the gate, [like] Four Seasons Bora Bora and Soneva Javi Maldives.”

While the luxury bookings are appreciated, that’s not Perry’s focus. Her preferred clients are those who want to experience travel regardless of budget (as long as they aren’t just looking for the lowest possible price). Like Travis, she’s building her business around personal connections and taking care of her clients.

“The way that I look at my business is that it’s not about selling things – my business is about servicing people,” she told TMR.

How to sell yourself

Perry’s approach to building her travel brand is to be intentional and open-minded. “From a marketing perspective, everything should be intentional. Don’t post on social media because you should post on social media,” she explained, recommending advisors instead post with a purpose.

“I worked in advertising for 15 years. I need people to think ‘wow, Devyn is so busy with travel – she’s clearly an expert’ … so I post all of the trips that I’m planning.”

Perry’s advice to other newcomers in the industry is to take the time to do an honest review of their target demographic, based not on what you want to sell but rather on what you have access to right now and where your knowledge lies.

“Who are the people that are most likely to use your product? What do you need to say to them and where do you need to say it to convince them that they should use your product? … Working in tourism is such a responsibility and a privilege. People are trusting you with the momentous thing in their life. You owe people the truth – if you’re not an expert [in a destination] you shouldn’t be doing it,” she said.