Designed to accelerate the sales of The Travel Franchise's "Cruise Mastery members, the Seminar at Sea is unlike any other in terms of its size and immersive experience. It includes four days of intensive coaching including industry and product knowledge, social media training, as well as personal and business development. The super-sized group also enjoyed the uniqueness of a Virgin Voyages experience.

As a result, franchisees have been generating enquiries by sharing their new passion for the brand. “Sales and enquiries have been coming in thick and fast since we got back”, says Paul Harrison, co-founder of The Travel Franchise and its consumer-facing holiday firm Not Just Travel. “We expect this to be our busiest week ever selling Virgin Cruises, looking set to be possibly our biggest week for cruise as a whole”.

“This is what the winning formula to success looks like,” says Paul Harrison, “Virgin Voyages has pulled out all the stops for us. Every single one of our franchisees are raving about the ship and its unique offer. Preconceptions that this type of cruise isn’t for them have been blown away. You can see the evidence of this not only in their social media posts, but also in the bookings they’ve made before they’ve even got off the ship.”

Co-founder Steve Witt said: “The training our members have received has been laser-focused on increasing their cruise business through product knowledge, social media skills, mindset and business strategy. Training also includes sessions by TV presenters, brought onboard to help upskill our team with wide range of personal development and confidence-boosting skills”

Our Cruise Mastery Programme grows and grows, and Seminar at Sea is a pinnacle event. Our investment in our franchisees is significant.”

Witt continues: “Virgin Voyages has surpassed our expectations as hosts in terms of their incredible service, food, social events and generosity. Our agents now know that on a Virgin Voyages cruise you can make the holiday what you want it to be - it can be a relaxing fitness and wellbeing retreat, an incredible multi-centre adventure with fine dining, or a social party that is inclusive to all ages. Franchisees are making bookings onboard as they are using the skills we’ve taught them, as well as demonstrating their new passion for the Virgin brand.”

SJ Walker, Director of Sales at Virgin Voyages says: “We are absolutely thrilled that so many people have been able to enjoy the Seminar at Sea onboard Valiant Lady in the Mediterranean. There's no better way to be able to sell a product than experiencing it first-hand and this event has been an incredible success. We are really proud that we've curated a casually luxurious adult-only cruise experience and that we've been able to showcase it to such a large group of passionate travel agents. They have loved enjoying so many surprising and delightful moments onboard where everything is inclusive – be it speciality dining, Wi-Fi, fitness classes, tips, entertainment, events and activities. With our fourth ship on the way later on this year, we have significant growth ambitions and see Not Just Travel and The Travel Franchise playing a big part of that goal considering their own growth plans. As a key trade partner, our relationship has been strengthened, but this is just the beginning.”

Witt concludes: “We have created a winning formula that results in significant sales success for absolutely everyone involved.”