In the past month alone the company has assisted three of its dynamic franchisees go from being home-based travel consultants to having thriving retail outlets.

These include James and Natasha Oliphant and Rachael and Colman Coyne - two of the company’s most successful husband and wife duos.

While many franchisees operate under the company’s customer-facing brand, Not Just Travel, many chose their own company names. Rachael and Colman launched their ‘Jetset’ retail unit on Lindley High Street, Huddersfield on 9th November.

“Investing in our local area feels natural for us,” said Rachael. “Consumer confidence continues to be high and so we have decided to respond to customer demand by opening a new shop. We previously welcomed clients into our garden office to plan their next adventure, but our customer base has expanded enough to need additional staff and a high-street presence.”

Meanwhile, James and Natasha have opened a new travel centre within Longacres Garden centre in Bagshot. The new premises is capturing a lot of new clients who want that initial face-to-face reassurance, says Natasha.

“We’re finding that a number of new clients initially come to us because they’re bogged down with the information available online. They just want to come in and speak to someone.”

As the business grows, the couple may well appoint a member of staff to help them out.

And thirdly, consultant Kelly Baldwin has launched "The Aspire Travel Hub" on Cottenham High Street in Cambridgeshire. Having launched her Aspire business in 2022 she’s scaled up rapidly and now oversees a six-person team.

Opening the “Hub” was a natural progression for her, allowing her team to gather in-person, blending the flexibility of homeworking with an office base and thereby promoting both team well-being as well as servicing the local community.

Not Just Travel co-founder Steve Witt said: “We’re proud of the work the HQ team has done behind the scenes to enable our homeworkers to grow into high street retail. Our consultants have adapted to their customers’ needs and we have adapted to the needs of our consultants. These are entrepreneurs who have built incredible businesses based on our company values and relationships and have achieved so much. We can’t wait to see what they achieve next.”

With the vast majority of franchisees continuing to enjoy the flexibility of running their travel businesses from their home, the fact that more consumers are turning to travel agents to research and book their holidays is seeing more franchisees wanting to appoint staff and grow their premises in order to keep up with demand.

According to the latest figures from the Association of British Travel Agents, the proportion of people saying they booked a holiday with a travel professional in the past 12 months has risen to 38%, up from 34% last year.

In particular, young families and younger age groups are increasingly turning to travel professionals to book their holidays; a trend which has been steadily building over the past five years.

In 2019, 36% of families with young children said they booked a holiday with a travel professional, which rose to 55% this year, while the proportion of 18-24-year-olds booking with travel professionals has risen from 36% in 2019 to almost half (48%) this year.

“This is a yet more clarification that a travel franchise is a good investment for those looking to grow a successful – and fun – business,” said Witt. “The business is out there and we’ll help our consultants to go out there and grab it.”