In 10 years, The Travel Agent Next Door (TTAND) has grown from almost nothing to having more than 1,300 employees. The company is recognized as a leader in Canada, and this year, it will reach half a billion dollars in sales.
But TTAND founder Flemming Friisdahl never expected such lofty numbers.
“We never thought we’d get to where we got to,” Friisdahl told members of the trade media at a thank you lunch in Toronto on 19MAR. “We never wanted to be the biggest. Our desire was to provide the best programs for the agents; it really, really was.
“That’s why I do every single interview with potential new experienced agents. I do it myself; every one of them. It was never meant to be having tons of people; it was meant to be having quality people who believe in what we believed in.”
It wasn’t entirely easy to set up a network of home-based agents, Friisdahl recalled.
“Suppliers were easy,” he said in a 10-year anniversary video presentation. “Every single supplier said yes. We had to go out and find agents. Every six weeks we hired staff. Penny (VP Travel Agent Services Penny Martin, who’s retiring this year) and I talked to every single agent.”
“I wanted to be a program where the agents took home more money than ever before because they’re the ones that did all the heavy lifting,” he said in his video. He also took time to single out several top TTAND employees over the years, including Penny Martin, Nancy Aube, Brad Miron and his wife, Rhonda Stanley.
Fast-forward a decade, and TTAND now has offices in Canada and India and some 1,350 agents in total.
“An agent recently said to me, ‘How does it benefit me that TTAND has so many agents?’ I told them I think there are three things to think about,” Friisdahl said. “One, we only support about half; about 650. We only support primary agents. So that means we have 10 agents for every one staff. That’s a very high ratio in the industry. Second, the more agents we have, the more we can reinvest back into the offices. We invest in our agents. We believe strongly in that.
“Third, we get higher commissions. We get way higher commissions with the suppliers because of our volume. We just won Royal Caribbean’s partner of the year, Celebrity’s partner of the year, an Air Canada COE (Circle of Excellence) award. We provide dedicated phone numbers, dedicated support that they normally wouldn’t have. The last thing, really, is that if we have problems with our preferred suppliers, being the volume we are they step up and help.”
Friisdahl said it’s never been about having the most suppliers but having the right ones.
“Our suppliers make up 83% of all the commissions we earn. That, to me is an amazing number; 83% goes to 42 suppliers on half-a-billion sales. That’s phenomenal.”
Friisdahl said it’s not uncommon for TTAND advisors to make up half of an agent fam trip.
“Why? Because The Travel Agent Next Door is seen as a true company that sells travel, not a card mill, not a multi-level marketing program, not a ‘sign-up anybody, it’s free; you don’t pay anything to be part of us. That’s not what we’re about.
“We charge a fee because we offer great service, and we create great value. We haven’t raised our fees in 10 years. We haven’t raised our annual fees in 10 years. We haven’t changed our commission split in 10 years. Why? Because the model works.
"None of it would have been possible without excellent employees," he said.
“We couldn’t have done all of this if it wasn’t for the staff. I love it when our team says, ‘Well, The Travel Agent Next Door is my company.’ When they say ‘It’s my company’ I love that, because the company’s not me. I’m one person out of 65 people. The company is the people that help make us successful, and our company is only successful because of them, because of the agents that trust us and work with us and the suppliers who stuck with us.”
Among his proudest moments in the past 10 years is the TTAND Pencils for Kids program, which helped build four schools and a sewing centre for 30 women in Niger, West Africa.
He also notes that TTAND didn’t lay off a single employee during COVID.
“When COVID hit it was hard. Many of our agents had to give back tens and tens of thousands in commissions. We made a decision to support them.”
Families in need were provided with up to $800 to buy Christmas gifts and a holiday meal. The program was so popular that agents who were still working matched the TTAND contribution, allowing the company to help 55 families.
As well, Friisdahl noted that TTAND gives back to communities when it visits destinations and holds its regular conferences.
“But the proudest thing for me is seeing our agents succeed and seeing the amount of money they have in their pockets. One called me a few months ago and said now she’s able to buy a mini van, she’s able to put her daughter through dance school, she’s able to spend time with her family.”
Asked about the next 10 years, Friisdahl said one of the big challenges is technology.
“I always wish we could do things faster,” he told Open Jaw. “We need to be faster at having technology others don’t have.”
He also said TTAND is embracing artificial intelligence.
“A.I. doesn’t scare me at all,” he said.
With agents scattered across Canada, TTAND celebrated its 10th anniversary with a virtual party that included highlights of the past 10 years, appearances by former convention guests, Friisdahl’s video presentation, and a musical performance by legendary Canadian singer/songwriter Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo fame.
There was also the lunch for Canadian trade publications.
“If it wasn’t for the trade papers and your support in keeping us out in front the agents, if it wasn’t for the travel industry and travel agents supporting us, if it wasn’t for the suppliers supporting us…we wouldn’t be here today,” Friisdahl said. “I want to thank everybody for their support over the last 10 years and for the next 10 years to come or 20 years to come.
“I’ll be really old by then,” he quipped. “I think the first 10 years were great, and I think the next 10 years will be so amazing. We’re going to bring in really cool, kick-ass programs that no one else has.”
