The Travel Franchise: Launch a Home-Based Travel Business with a Money-Back Guarantee

The Travel Franchise - a thriving community of over 700 home-based travel consultants across the UK

The Travel Franchise is one of the most celebrated home-based franchise opportunities in the UK. Founded by Paul Harrison and Steve Witt and refined over 20 years, the franchise trades as Not Just Travel to its customers. Today the network includes more than 700 active franchisees - all earning commission from booking holidays from home.

In 2025 alone, the brand was named World's Best Lifestyle Franchise, Best European Franchise at the International Franchise Association Global Awards, and Britain's Best Home-Based Franchise. High-profile brand ambassadors Eamonn Holmes OBE and Daley Thompson are actively involved, lending serious credibility to the brand.

Award-Winning Brand

What a Travel Franchisee Does

This is a home-based, commission-driven business. As a franchisee, you book holidays and travel experiences for clients - from family breaks and luxury cruises to honeymoons and group trips. Everything is backed by the full weight of the Travel Franchise head office, so you do not need to be a booking system expert or hold industry qualifications to succeed.

Three Packages to Suit Every Budget

The Travel Franchise offers three distinct packages so you can start at the level that matches your ambition. Prices exclude VAT. Payment plans are available to spread the cost over 12 months.

Real Franchisee Earnings

The Travel Franchise publishes actual earnings achieved by its network. These are not hypothetical figures - they are real commissions earned by franchisees:

Training That Takes You Abroad

The Travel Franchise is known for a training programme that genuinely rivals anything else in the sector. It combines online learning with in-person experiences in locations that mirror the holidays you will eventually be selling.

• ✓ Five-day small-group online live training course to launch your business
• ✓ Free mentorship trips abroad (Elite and Supreme packages)
• ✓ Seminar at Sea cruises - dedicated cruise holiday expertise training
• ✓ Personal Business Development Manager providing free mentoring
• ✓ Head office support six days a week, including ticketing services
• ✓ Free social media marketing tools and a personal branded website
• ✓ Free webinars throughout the year to keep your knowledge current

Why Travel, Why Now

UK consumers continue to prioritise holidays even through economic uncertainty. Post-pandemic, travel demand has rebounded strongly - particularly for cruises, premium package holidays and bespoke trips that benefit from expert advice. This is exactly the space a Travel Franchise consultant occupies.

Who This Franchise Is For

No travel experience is required. The brand actively recruits career-changers, parents looking for flexible work, retirees wanting a purposeful next chapter, and ambitious entrepreneurs ready to scale. What matters is confidence dealing with people, willingness to follow a proven system and commercial drive.

Key Benefits at a Glance

• ✓ Entry from £2,995 with payment plans available
• ✓ Money-Back Challenge on Elite package removes financial risk
• ✓ 100% home-based - no office, no stock, no staff
• ✓ Part-time or full-time flexibility
• ✓ 2025 winner: World's Best Lifestyle Franchise and Best European Franchise
• ✓ Ambassador endorsements from Eamonn Holmes OBE and Daley Thompson CBE

Heritage and the Hays Independence Group

The Travel Franchise arm was launched in 2010 to commercialise the home-working model behind the consumer brand Not Just Travel, which co-founders Paul Harrison and Steve Witt had set up in 2001. A pivotal moment came when Not Just Travel became one of the earliest franchise members of the Hays Travel Independence Group, the consortium operated by the UK's largest independent travel agency. That relationship gives franchisees access to Hays Travel's commercial agreements, ATOL cover, financial bonding and back-office strength, without giving up the home-based, low-overhead model the franchise was built around.

UK Travel Market Context

Travel is one of the few discretionary categories UK households consistently protect. ABTA's 2025-26 Holiday Habits research found the vast majority of consumers plan to spend the same or more on holidays as the year before, with travel confidence and participation at their highest level since before the pandemic. According to Tourism Economics, UK outbound leisure travel is forecast to grow by around 4% cumulatively over the 2024 to 2026 period. That is a tailwind for trusted human advisors who can package complex trips, particularly cruises, multi-centre tours and group bookings that DIY sites struggle with.

Marketing and Lead Generation

Generating enquiries is the single biggest hurdle for any new travel consultant. The Travel Franchise tackles this on several fronts so franchisees are not left cold-calling.

• ✓ Personal branded website provided as standard, ready to capture enquiries from day one
• ✓ Social media content library and templates, plus ongoing training in paid social
• ✓ National brand-building led by head office, including ambassador-led PR and broadcast appearances
• ✓ Partners In Travel scheme that channels customer enquiries to active franchisees
• ✓ WOW Travel App with 40+ trade suppliers for fast quote turnaround that converts

A Day in the Life

There is no fixed shape to a franchisee's day, which is the point. A typical week mixes proactive client outreach (birthdays, anniversaries, school holiday reminders), responding to live enquiries, building quotes through the WOW Travel App, taking supplier training sessions and posting holiday inspiration to a personal social channel. Evenings and weekends are often when bookings convert, because that is when families plan together. The trade-off for that flexibility is self-discipline: franchisees who treat it like a hobby tend to earn like a hobby, while those who block out structured weekly time get returns that look like a small business.

Cruise and Luxury Specialisms

Cruise is one of the fastest-growing UK travel categories and the franchise has invested heavily here, including dedicated Seminar at Sea training cruises and a strategic relationship with the Hays cruise programme. Not Just Travel was awarded TTG's Luxury Travel Homeworking Business of the Year (Large) in 2025, with judges singling out the quality of the training given to consultants recruited from outside the travel industry. For franchisees who want to specialise rather than generalise, cruise and luxury are well-supported routes.

Founders and Leadership

Co-founders Paul Harrison and Steve Witt remain hands-on in the business. Both are serial entrepreneurs with backgrounds outside travel, which informs the franchise's strong emphasis on coaching people who have never sold a holiday before. The leadership team is visible at retreats and Academy sessions, not just on a website.

Things to Weigh Up

This is a commission-only model, which means earnings build with effort and time. The five-day Academy gets you launch-ready, but the first six months are typically about building a client base from your personal network before referrals compound. The published earnings figures are real, but they sit at the top of a distribution that also includes part-timers earning a useful side income rather than a full salary. Anyone considering the Elite or Supreme packages should request the prospectus and speak directly to existing franchisees at different stages of their journey before committing.

Interested in exploring more opportunities in this sector? Take a look at other Travel & Leisure franchise opportunities available on Franchise Hunt.