Lisa Sheldon arrived at her travel specialty taking a route that has become familiar to travel agency owners across the U.S. For most of her 26 years as an agent she did it all, booking air, hotels, cruises, groups, FITs and vacation packages from a storefront location.
In 2005, however, she decided to close Travel Planners, her Milwaukee-area agency, and make a radical change. After successfully arranging a few destination weddings for clients, Sheldon decided to devote her business to romance travel — specifically weddings, honeymoons and vow renewals.
She moved her agency home and rebranded, calling the new company I Do Island Weddings. It was a step that Sheldon had considered for some time as she saw growth in destination weddings, spurred by resorts and other travel suppliers who were dedicating resources to promote the niche.
“The first destination wedding I did was in 2000, and I was really intrigued,” she said. “It was when Sandals was coming on board with a wedding program and clients started asking about weddings. I did some bridal shows and began working with preferred vendors.”
Sheldon said she saw a coming boom in destination weddings and that it could be a lucrative specialty that would make up for some trouble spots in the Wisconsin travel agency business.
“In Wisconsin, most of our travel is in winter. That's when everyone wants to go somewhere else. But I found that romance travel is spread all through the year. It spaces bookings out, and so there's cash flow all year round.”
Through bridal shows and a few bookings, business started rolling in for weddings, mostly through referrals. With the average bride having four or five attendants, and the chances high that the attendants will soon marry, an agent can easily grow a destination wedding business, Sheldon said. It can be a matter of doing a great job for one bride and receiving referrals for many more.
The travel industry has changed from when Sheldon did her first destination wedding in Jamaica in 2000. “Back then the resorts didn't have wedding departments, so I'd be dealing with sales managers at resorts, and it wasn't their focus. Now the resorts have wedding departments, some with multiple coordinators. They are trained. There's even training being done in Cancun in handling Hindu weddings. The entire industry has blossomed.”
Sheldon said that the reason for the boom is that many young couples who have small budgets prefer to pay $12,000 to $15,000 for a destination wedding for 20 guests and a honeymoon included, rather than spending much more for a traditional wedding, which averages about $29,000 in the U.S.
Also contributing to the popularity is that because often a bride and groom's friends and family are spread all over the U.S. it becomes just as easy to fly to Mexico or the Caribbean, for example, than have guests fly to one location in the U.S.
“These are friends and family who may not see each other very often, so it's a chance to spend time together, do activities, play golf, have a nice dinner. It turns a one-day wedding event into a multiday family-and-friend event, which is nice when people are spread all over the country.”
A year ago, Sheldon co-founded the Destination Wedding and Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) with John Hawks, former ARTA president and a former agency owner.
The group has grown to 600 members, almost all home-based agents who either specialize in romance travel or are looking to grow the specialty. The association's yearly $139 membership fee covers networking through a private Facebook group, webinars and other training, marketing support and supplier information.
Sheldon spends most of her time today running DWHSA training courses for the association and other industry groups, such as ASTA and Nacta. She continues to do some bookings, enabling her to watch trends in destination weddings emerge. The latest is that brides want their wedding to be customized and not cookie-cutter, she said.
“They don't want the same wedding in Cancun or Jamaica that their cousin had,” she said. “We're seeing more ceremonies off site and in unique locations.”
The association's training covers some touchy subjects, including how travel agents should charge for their services (most charge a planning fee, with some agents crediting the fee to the final payment) and how to deal with “bridezilla” clients whose behavior can be a headache for destination wedding agents.
Sheldon's suggestion is to “set boundaries. Let them know for example, that you won't accept text messages from them on Sunday nights. We can't be constantly accessible.”
This fall, DWHSA is planning to roll out a “master specialist” destination wedding and honeymoon specialist program that Sheldon said will be an intensive education course that will include a white paper assignment.
Sheldon is also organizing a Romance Travel Summit this week, April 23-26, which consists of a series of webinars with wedding industry specialists. The fee is $49, and information is at www.romancetravelsummit.com.
It's all part of what Sheldon says is her focus as DWHSA builds momentum. “It's all about education, education, education.”