Cruise Planners, the nation’s largest home-based travel agency franchise network announced their lineup of training programs for 2025 at their annual Convention, CP World, in Fort Lauderdale.

Among the training schedule are some new programs for advisors to leverage to enhance their sales and marketing skills. A new River Cruise Academy will focus on the art of selling river cruises. This event will be held on the Tauck ms Savor as a pre-event to the ASTA River Cruise Expo. Another new training program is called R & R – Refresh and Reboot. It is for franchisees who want to focus on marketing, business operations and systems to jump start their path to success. Overall, Cruise Planners offers over 25 in-person training opportunities throughout the year for advisors to engage, learn and strategize about their business.

“We are excited to offer an incredible array of in-person events for our valued advisors in 2025,” said Michelle Fee, Founder and CEO of Cruise Planners. “This year, we’re introducing new training initiatives that reinforce our commitment to ongoing education and professional growth. These events will give our agents the chance to connect, collaborate, and stay at the forefront of this ever-evolving industry.”

2025 In-Person Events Hosted by Cruise Planners (25+ Opportunities):

2 Bootcamps: To help advisors prepare for the 2025 travel season, Cruise Planners has organized two bootcamps. These three-day sessions offer an in-person learning experience with expert presenters at convenient locations. The bootcamps will cover a range of topics, including supplier training, sales techniques, social media strategies, business analytics, and technology workshops, providing practical action items to achieve real results.

6 Star University Trainings: Cruise Planners’ new franchisee training program, STAR (Sales Training to Accelerate Results) University, is an extensive six-day course designed to equip new Cruise Planner advisors with everything they need to launch their careers. Participants will learn from industry experts and supplier partners, attend an engaging trade show, and receive hands-on technical training on several of Cruise Planners’ top-tier, custom-built marketing, booking, and CRM tools, ensuring they are well-prepared for success.

3 Tech Days: Tech days at Cruise Planners Headquarters are focused on in-depth training on numerous proprietary and custom-built tools created to streamline the booking process and beyond for the Cruise Planner advisor network.

2 Elite Summits: Cruise Planners Elite Summit trips bring together top-performing advisors. Hosted by Cruise Planners executives and supplier partners, these events provide an opportunity for advisors to network, share insights, and celebrate their achievements and best practices. The Elite Summits will include one-on-one meetings with supplier partners, as well as exclusive receptions, dinner events, entertainment, and more.

Luxury Forum: The Luxury Forum is a luxury travel focused event aimed at helping advisors either grow their luxury sales or begin selling more high-end luxury brands. The event offers expert speakers, product knowledge, supplier one on one time and more.

2 Sales Academies: The Cruise Planners Sales Academy is a training program designed by Cruise Planners to educate and empower their franchisees and focused primarily on sales and marketing skills. These trainings cover practices such as sales techniques, customer service, product knowledge and more and are hosted at either an all-inclusive resort or onboard a ship.

River Cruise Academy: For the first time in 2025, Cruise Planners will offer a River Cruise Academy. This academy will focus on helping advisors perfect and grow their river cruise sales. The first River Cruise Academy will be held prior to the ASTA River Cruise Expo in Vienna onboard the Tauck ms Savor. 

2 Refresh and Reboot Seminars: Refresh and Reboot seminars are for the advisor who is looking for a quick refresher. They will dive into the critical marketing and technology programs as well as business and time management skills that will help them grow their business quickly.

4 Signature Travel Network Events: Through Cruise Planners’ affiliation with Signature Travel Network, advisors have access to three regional travel exchanges as well as their annual convention.

Annual Convention: Cruise Planners Annual Convention, CP World, is their biggest event held every year, hosting their advisors, suppliers from all major cruise lines, tour companies and resorts. The annual convention discusses company performance, as well as announcements of new technology, marketing and sales tools to set their advisors us for success in the coming year.

Cruise Planners has introduced exciting new online training programs and initiatives to complement their already industry-leading offerings, elevating their advisors to the next level.

Some of these new initiatives include:

CP Genie Learning: An online learning academy offering on-demand, quick, virtual training for Cruise Planners advisors. It provides professional development in areas such as CP tools, marketing, sales, and social media. Advisors can also enhance their expertise through specialist programs tailored to specific areas of the travel industry, helping them grow their business and skills efficiently.

SOAR Dashboard for Premium Associates: The SOAR dashboard, previously available only to franchise owners, will now be accessible to Premium Associates. This tool tracks over 120 key business metrics, helping users analyze their business evaluating their strengths, opportunities, achievements and results to optimize their performance.

Cruise Planners announced 20 new and exciting technology and marketing initiatives during their annual convention. For a full list of those announcements, click here.

Company Background: Cruise Planners was founded in 1994 and is the nation’s largest home-based travel agent franchise network. As a leader in the travel franchise industry, Cruise Planners positions a nation-wide network of 2,500 franchise owners for success by providing innovative marketing programs, proprietary and cutting-edge booking and technology tools, as well as professional development and hands-on training with the industry’s top executives. The company continues to be an industry leader and was named the No.1 travel franchise by Entrepreneur magazine for 18 consecutive years and awarded by Franchise Business Review as “Best-In-Category” for 2 years.

Cruise Planners received a 99% franchise owner satisfaction report from Franchise Business Review for 2024. Franchise Business Review also ranked Cruise Planners #3 OVERALL on their list of Top 200 Franchises of 2022. Cruise Planners was recently featured in Entrepreneur as one of the top 30 franchise innovators in technology, has been consistently named as one of the Top Women-Owned Businesses by the South Florida Business Journal, is on the Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and was recognized as one of the Top Workplaces by the Sun Sentinel.