Since its founding on Jan. 1, 2005, by brothers Brad and Jeff Tolkin, World Travel Holdings (WTH) has become a dominant force in the leisure travel and franchise industries. As the nation’s largest cruise agency, it also operates a top-ranked travel agency franchise and several cruise brands in the UK. Beyond that, the company manages cruise sales for many of the world’s travel brands and is a premier distributor of luxury villas. Most recently, in September 2024, Southwest Airlines joined World Travel Holdings as a private-label partner brand.
Due to their significant contributions to the cruise industry, Brad and Jeff were inducted into the Cruise Lines International Association Hall of Fame in 2014. Among their many successes within the industry is WTH’s travel agency franchise organization, Dream Vacations/CruiseOne, which reached a milestone of 2,000 franchise locations in March 2024. Recommend was able to chat with Brad about the organization’s many milestones and other travel industry happenings this past November during the 2024 Dream Vacations/CruiseOne National Conference, which took place aboard Celebrity Ascent.
‘A Remarkable Experience’
Our “mission statement,” says Brad, “is to deliver a remarkable experience. That’s what guides us.” To create that remarkable experience for consumers, travel advisors need the latest tools, and on that note, Brad pointed to the “great technology” that was announced during the 2024 conference. Included among the new tech tools was a newly designed website homepage and easy-to-use content management system tool. “WTH has over 150 people in the technology division, and we spend a lot of time on research and development.” However, he stresses, “we’re not a company that chases the flavor of the moment; we look at things that are important to the franchisees.” He uses the newly designed website homepage as an example. “With this new technology that we have delivered, franchisees can now make up their own homepages or ‘storefronts.’ You want to just focus on luxury travel? That’s what your website is going to be. It’s totally customizable.”
Bullish on the Travel Economy
Brad is “bullish about the travel economy because travel is so important to the consumer today. I just think that the generations that have continued to come into this world, they grew up with travel and value travel.” That said, he does note that “we live in a cyclical society and one day we will have a recession. This country hasn’t had a recession in 15 years. Anyone under 35, they’ve never faced the reality of a recession,” although he acknowledges that the pandemic did cause economic uncertainty, but that “only lasted 60 days.” He says, “We have to stay open to the possibility that we could have a downturn,” and advisors need to remember that it’s the “consumer who has the loudest voice in the room,” he says. “It’s not the cruise lines or the hotels or the airlines that decide the selling price, it’s the consumer.”
Yet, he adds, “I’ve been in this business 45 years now, and I’ve seen many different ups and downs in the industry. And travel really continues to march on, but pricing is affected. We sell the most perishable inventory in the world—when ‘this cabin,’ [referring to the cabin we were conducting the interview in] sails tonight, if no one’s occupied it, it will never be occupied again. But because it’s the most perishable inventory in the world, the hard asset owners—the airlines, the hotels, the cruise lines—they have to do something to move the space, they need to put people in those seats, cabins and rooms. So, you’re going to have transactions, but in tough economic times, transactions go up, margins go down.”
But because the “generations that have come into the world have grown up with this, they feel entitled to it. And I think that’s a good way of looking at it.”
Hug Your Customer
“My big tip for anyone in any business is hug your customer,” says Brad. “I use that expression because, as I mentioned, our tagline at World Travel Holdings is to deliver a remarkable experience. We’ll never get to utopia, but we’ll always be on the track to improve that experience.
“Travel advisors have done wonderfully since the return of COVID. The consumer is seeking out the advice of a professional travel advisor more than ever; they like that professionalism. They love the comfort of dealing with a travel advisor. I have three children, they’re all Millennials and they all use a travel agent because they value their time. And I don’t see that stopping.”
