Home-based travel franchise CruiseOne®, which is part of the world’s largest cruise agency and award-winning leisure travel company World Travel Holdings, is announcing today at the annual International Franchise Expo the opening of its 1,000th location. The franchise has locations in all 50 states and Mexico, and grows by 10 percent each year.
“While our system continues to grow, we are dedicated to maintaining a low staff to franchisee ratio to ensure we are providing a personal and high-quality level of service that benefits franchisee’s business development,” said Tim Courtney, CFE, vice president of franchise development for CruiseOne. “In fact, we believe this is one of the main reasons why we have an industry-leading 94 percent retention rate among franchise owners.”
Travel professionals are still in high demand among leisure travelers. According to the America Society of Travel Agent’s (ASTA) 2015 Traveler Decision Making Study, nearly half of the travelers who used a travel agent in the past year expect to increase their usage of agents in the future. In addition, more than 50 percent of people surveyed believe they have a better vacation experience when booking with a travel agent.
“It is an exciting time to be in the travel industry and we are thrilled to have reached the 1,000th franchise milestone,” said Debbie Fiorino, senior vice president of CruiseOne. “This accomplishment is possible as a result of our hardworking staff at our corporate headquarters and our franchisees who make up the fabric of our company and create a sense of family. It takes a village to be successful and we would not be where we are today without each and every individual contribution.”
The company plans on celebrating this achievement by capitalizing on the number 1,000. CruiseOne will be donating $1,000 to its signature charity Make-A-Wish®, adding to the more than $500,000 donated by the company and its parent company, World Travel Holdings, since the partnership’s inception in 2011. In addition, $1,000 will be awarded to both a randomly selected franchisee and their respective customer, and four staff members will receive $250 each ($1,000 total).
CruiseOne is committed to being “Rich in Diversity” and empowers all owners and employees to reach their highest potential by leveraging their broad range of talent, experiences, personalities, viewpoints and ideas to generate business growth. Veterans and active-duty spouses make up 30 percent of the military-friendly franchise, and the number of millennial owners has increased by nearly 20 percent in the last four years.
CruiseOne is looking for franchisees who are passionate about travel, helping others and are eager to go into business for themselves, but not by themselves. No experience in travel or sales is necessary as all new franchise owners attend a 6-day training at CruiseOne’s world headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where they learn how to use CruiseOne’s industry-leading booking systems and get an introduction to the cruise and resort vacation industry. New franchisees can open their home-based business for less than $10,000 and work anywhere with an Internet connection.
