Headquarter Happenings: Vacation Planners Sets Big Goals, and Big Impact, for Launch

Almost every year of the eight years that Jenn Lee spent with Travel Planners International (TPI), Ken Gagliano, the company’s president, asked her one question: “When are you going to start a franchise?”
Lee rebuffed him each year, but that changed just about a year and a half ago.

“He came to me and told me ‘I am going to do it with or without you,” Lee told TMR in an interview this week. “But he said, ‘I really want to do it with you.”

Lee’s last day with TPI was officially the end of May, but she conducted her final event for TPI just two weeks ago. Now she’s embarking on a new journey with Vacation Planners, a soon-to-be-launched sister brand to TPI and franchiser that’s readying to welcome its first 50 members soon. So what is Vacation Planners all about?

Talking to TMR this week, Lee made it very clear—this is not simply a new business model for TPI. It is a new brand that she believes will “become synonymous with consumers” mostly for its consistency of experience that isn’t tied to any one kind of travel and is instead branded to the services it provides.

Vacation Planners is looking to be a franchise brand, like Chick-fil-A, that consumers can seek out and receive the same standard of experience, regardless of which franchise location they reach out to.
“It is all about consistency in the consumer experience,” Lee told TMR. “The process will be consistent everywhere, from meeting an advisor to getting the itinerary via the app, credit card authorizations, all of that. The humans will be different, but the experience will be consistent.”

Vacation Planners will provide the marketing, the back office, the branding, and the messaging, allowing its franchisees to focus on curating trips and building their communities, whether virtual or physical.
The goal is to provide franchisees the platform to succeed in servicing clients instead of dealing with other things in their businesses that take away from that, and making that platform consistent across members so consumers know what they can expect.

“A lot of advisors will talk about the challenges and struggles of creating emails and workflow and automation and understand cruising and FITs, IC agreements. It’s the wild west. We’re going to solve that,” she said.

What’s in it for members?

Initially, Vacation Planners will launch with 50 members, which Lee is branding the “Founder’s Circle.” Members will have to buy in with an initial fee starting from $2,500, and then pay $700 in monthly fees. They’ll operate with a 90/10 commission split.

There’s no requirement for a brick-and-mortar location or years in the industry. The only requirement is $400,000 in sales from the previous 12 months, and a mandatory interview with Lee and her team to make sure they fit the company’s philosophy and culture.

Vacation Planners will trade under the TPI IATA number, and under the TPI partner agreements, giving Lee and her team the resources to spend more on marketing, support, education, and training, and giving the members access to TPI’s commission perks.

While a sister-brand to TPI, Vacation Planners is a member of Signature, so all franchisees will have access to everything Signature offers. That onboarding fee will also include ASTA and CLIA memberships, including access to ASTA’s Verified Travel Advisor (VTA) program.

In terms of the timeline for rollout, the full applications and subsequent interviews will happen starting next month, followed by the first virtual and in-person training for franchisees in October and November. Lee is planning a big consumer campaign to put the brand on the map at the beginning of Q4 of this year.

The initial Founder’s Circle will get the benefit of the initial consumer rollout, with whatever business that the team drives to franchisees spread among those initial 50 members. After that, as more franchisees come on board, the percentage of that split will naturally go down.

Why Vacation Planners and Why Now

For Lee, someone who has spent eight-plus years with TPI, and someone who has become synonymous with the TPI brand, moving to a brand-new venture like Vacation Planners is about creating a lasting legacy for herself, not just with TPI members or future franchisees, but in the industry.

“We want to seize the future of this industry together and seize where the opportunity really lies if you let go of the personal brand and instead focus on what you want to do,” she said.

The goal is to build it slowly, and eventually turn Vacation Planners into a powerhouse, franchise option not just for those inside of the industry, but for entrepreneurs outside of the industry who might be looking for new opportunities elsewhere.

That consistency will help that, Lee said, as those outside the industry will be able to look at a Vacation Planners franchise and know what they are getting for their money.

Ultimately, Lee sees Vacation Planners as driving the profession forward, re-energizing the industry at a time when advisors might be worn out from back-to-back years of heavy travel demand.

“It’s going to re-energize the industry because advisors are tired, they are passionate. They are still in reactive mode. They have been in reactive mode for so long, that they don’t know what proactive mode looks like and that has been the challenge. We want to collectively talk about travel advisors as a consistent experience, to be proactive in the market. That’s what we’re most excited about,” she said.