Cruise Planners

Last updated
Cruise Planners
Company type Privately held company
Founded1994
Headquarters
Key people
Michelle Fee (CEO)
Theresa Scalzitti (COO)
Brian Shultz (CIO)
Scott Koepf (Chief Strategy Officer)
ServicesTravel agency services & travel franchises
OwnerMichelle Fee
Website cruiseplanners.com cruiseplannersfranchise.com

Cruise Planners is a home-based travel agent franchise network. [1] The company is headquartered in downtown Coral Springs, Florida. The company's travel agency franchisees specialize in booking luxury vacations, cruises, tours and travel to destinations around the world. [2] The company has more than 2,500 franchise owners in all 50 states. [3] [4]

Contents

The company is a licensed travel agency, and a member of CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association), [5] IFA (International Franchise Association), and ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents).

History

The company was co-founded by Marvin Davis, Michelle Fee, Lynn Korn in 1994 in Coral Springs, Florida. Prior to the retirement of Davis and Korn in 2007, their shares in the company were purchased by Palm Beach Capital. [6] [7]

In 2013, CEO Michelle Fee, [8] the late COO Vicky Garcia and CFO Tom Kruszewski together purchased the company from Palm Beach Capital. [9] In May 2022, Fee became the sole owner of Cruise Planners. The company has approximately 115 employees at their headquarters in Coral Springs, Florida. [10]

In September 2022, Cruise Planners announced it would join Signature Travel Network, one of the travel industry's largest travel agency networks. [11]

Awards and recognition

Cruise Planners is the most awarded travel franchise company in the industry. Franchise Business Review awarded Cruise Planners "Best in Category" in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and Cruise Planners has been listed on Entrepreneur’s Annual Franchise 500 List since 2004. [12] Cruise Planners was named #20 on Travel Weekly's 2023 Power List. [13]

In 2019, the Broward County Commission proclaimed January 29th as "Cruise Planners Day" in recognition of the company's economic and positive impact on tourism and the community.

Related Research Articles

Travelocity.com is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group. It has 12.4 million monthly unique visitors, making it the third most popular website owned by Expedia Group, after Expedia.com and Hotels.com.

Spirit Airlines, Inc., stylized as spirit, is a major American ultra-low cost airline headquartered in Miramar, Florida, in the Miami metropolitan area. Spirit operates scheduled flights throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America. Spirit was the seventh largest passenger carrier in North America as of 2023, as well as the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in North America.

Crystal Cruises is an American cruise line. It was founded in 1988 by Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and sold to Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate Genting Hong Kong in 2015. Following insolvency in 2022, the Crystal Cruises brand and two cruise ships were bought by A&K Travel Group, to recommence operations in 2023, with headquarters in Hallandale Beach, Florida. The new company has announced major refurbishments and enhancements for the two ships in a Fincantieri shipyard in Trieste, Italy, including increasing the number of butler suites and reducing guest capacity, and resumed service in July 2023 with shore excursions organized by Abercrombie & Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travel agency</span> Retailer that provides tourism-related services

A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destination. Travel agencies can provide outdoor recreation, arranging logistics for luggage and medical items delivery for travellers upon request, public transport timetables, car rentals, and bureau de change services. Travel agencies can also serve as general sales agents for airlines that do not have offices in a specific region. A travel agency's main function is to act as an agent, selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier. They are also called Travel Advisors. They do not keep inventory in-hand unless they have pre-booked hotel rooms or cabins on a cruise ship for a group travel event such as a wedding, honeymoon, or other group event.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hertz Global Holdings</span> American car rental company

Hertz Global Holdings, known as Hertz, is an American car rental company based in Estero, Florida. The company operates its namesake Hertz brand, along with the brands Dollar Rent A Car, Firefly Car Rental and Thrifty Car Rental.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMP Limited</span> Financial services company in Australia and New Zealand

AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products including home loans and savings accounts. Its headquarters is in Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Choice Hotels</span> American hospitality company

Choice Hotels International, Inc. is an American multinational hospitality company based in North Bethesda, Maryland. The company, which is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, owns several hotel brands ranging from upscale to economy. As of the third quarter 2023, Choice Hotels franchised nearly 7,500 hotels, representing nearly 630,000 rooms, in 46 countries and territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Princess Cruises</span> Cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc

Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California. As of 2021, it is the second largest cruise line by net revenue. It was previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises. The line has 15 ships cruising global itineraries that are marketed to both American and international passengers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amadeus IT Group</span> Spanish travel technology company

Amadeus IT Group, S.A. is a major Spanish multinational technology company that provides software solutions for the global travel and tourism industry. It is the world's leading provider of travel technology that focus on developing software for airlines, hotels, travel agencies, and other travel-related businesses to enhance their operations and customer experiences.

Network18 Media & Investments Limited, commonly referred to as the Network18 Group and sometimes as the Network18–Eenadu Group, is an Indian media conglomerate owned by the energy giant Reliance Industries, headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani. Rahul Joshi is the managing director, chief executive officer and group editor-in-chief of Network18, and Adil Zainulbhai is the chairman of its board of directors.

American Society of Travel Advisors is a trade association which was formed to represent and defend the business and regulatory public policy interests of travel intermediaries, including travel agencies and tour providers. The headquarters of the American Society of Travel Advisors is in Alexandria, Virginia, United States; it is a US Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(6) tax-exempt not-for-profit entity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Booking.com</span> Dutch online travel agency

Booking.com is one of the largest online travel agencies. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, and is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings. In 2022, the company's mobile app was the most downloaded mobile app in the travel agency category. As of December 31, 2022, Booking.com offered lodging reservation services for approximately 2.7 million properties, including 400,000 hotels, motels, and resorts and 2.3 million homes, apartments in over 220 countries and in over 40 languages. It also offers flights in 54 markets and tours and activities in more than 1,200 cities.

<i>Celebrity Silhouette</i> Solstice-class cruise ship

Celebrity Silhouette is a Solstice-class cruise ship operated by Celebrity Cruises, a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group. She was ordered with German shipbuilder Meyer Werft in May 2007 and was delivered in July 2011 as the fourth Solstice-class ship in the fleet.

Roomkey, formerly Room Key, was a hotel metasearch engine. Roomkey was a joint venture founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, and Wyndham Worldwide, or their respective affiliates. There were over 45,000 hotels in 150 countries listed on Room Key, including 60 brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edie Rodriguez</span> American businesswoman (born 1961)

Edie Rodriguez is an American businesswoman and travel industry executive. She has held executive or board member positions with a number of travel industry corporations, especially in the area of cruise lines and luxury products.

Purplebricks is a British online estate agent which operates in the UK. Founded in 2012 by Michael Bruce, Kenny Bruce and David Shepherd, it is backed by investors that include venture capital firm DN Capital as well as Neil Woodford, Paul Pindar, and Errol Damelin.

YACHTICO is an international yacht charter, it offers rentals of professional crewed and bare boat yacht. Headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida with operations in Europe in Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helloworld Travel</span> Australian-based travel agency

Helloworld Travel is an Australian-based travel agency specialising in Retail, Corporate and Wholesale travel products and packages. Helloworld Travel is the retail travel business of Helloworld Travel Limited (HLO), with fully branded travel agencies and associate agents located throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Cruise LLC is an American self-driving car company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2013 by Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, Cruise tests and develops autonomous car technology. The company is a largely autonomous subsidiary of General Motors. Following a series of incidents, it suspended operations in October 2023, and the CEO resigned in November 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EaseMyTrip</span> Indian online travel company

EaseMyTrip is an Indian online travel company, headquartered in New Delhi. It was founded in 2008 by Nishant Pitti, Rikant Pitti, and Prashant Pitti. The company provides hotel bookings, air tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, bus bookings, and white-label services. EaseMyTrip has overseas offices in Singapore, UAE and Thailand with country-specific websites for UAE, UK and Thailand.

References

  1. Taylor, Kate (7 August 2014). "Franchise Players: How a Travel-Loving Cosmetologist Became a Franchisee". NBCNews.com. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  2. Dempsey, Bobbi. "Cruise Planners Offers Innovative Solutions". TravelPulse. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  3. CNBC.com, Bob Woods, special to (2016-05-11). "9 low-cost franchises that can make you a millionaire". CNBC. Retrieved 2016-10-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. Sheivachman, Andrew (26 October 2016). "Travel Agents Struggle to Market Against Online Travel Giants". Skift. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  5. Biesiada, Jamie. "Across industry, bonuses and accolades for National Travel Agent Day". Travel Weekly. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  6. "Ultimate CEO Fee on building a business in a technology-driven world". South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  7. Norton, Theresa. "Cruise Planners CEO Fee to Christen AmaSerena". TravelPulse. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  8. Dunn, Laura (26 June 2014). "Women in Business: Q&A with Michelle Fee, CEO & Co-Founder of Cruise Planners". Huffington Post. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  9. Covey, Claudette. "'The Model Has Completely Evolved:' One-On-One With Cruise Planners' Michelle Fee". TravelPulse. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  10. Stieghorst, Tom. "Succeeding with the Cruise Planners formula". Travel Weekly. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  11. "Cruise Planners Joins Signature Travel Network". www.travelmarketreport.com. Retrieved 2022-09-01.
  12. "Cruise Planners, an American Express Travel Representative - Franchises & Business Opportunities". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  13. Martins, Jenn. "Travel Weekly Power List 2023". www.travelweekly.com.