Once upon a time, travel advisors across North America had a dream: an association focused on romance travel that would be run by advisors, for advisors. The result? The Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA)!
From its founding in January 2013, DWHSA has now grown into the world’s largest network of romance travel specialists, with more than 800 members in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, and Trinidad & Tobago. And, the best part? It’s still run by advisors, for advisors!
OUR BEGINNINGS
For many travel advisors, destination weddings and honeymoons are big business:
To help more advisors tap into this market, the DWAgents.com training group launched a series of regional workshops that began in Chicago in October 2011 and ran through late spring 2012 (Dallas, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City). “We surveyed more than 300 destination wedding and honeymoon specialists around the United States and Canada to create these courses,” noted John Hawks, the DWAgents.com administrator at the time. “We had more than 600 agents complete a class with us, in person or online, and their # 1 request for the future was ‘We need a group for professionals who’re just like us.’”
In July 2012, Lisa Sheldon—the owner of I Do Island Weddings in Janesville, Wis.—organized a by-invitation-only Facebook group for destination wedding and honeymoon planners that drew more than 200 advisors around North America as members. “I’ve found that many travel advisors want to learn more about this fun and profitable niche, but they don’t know where to start,” Lisa said. “And, advisors who’ve been selling these types of trips for years want to network with other travel professionals just like them.”
In January 2013, Lisa and John combined their efforts to organize the Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA), a brand-new organization that represents professional travel counselors who focus their businesses on honeymoons, destination weddings, and romantic travel. “We want to build a huge membership base around two types of advisors: those who’ve sold destination weddings and honeymoons for many years, and those who’re just getting their feet wet in this niche,” Lisa explained.
OUR PHILOSOPHIES
We’ve built this trade association BY TRAVEL ADVISORS, FOR TRAVEL ADVISORS.
We want to give travel professionals the tools and resources they need to build a stable, profitable, and enjoyable travel business in this niche. And, since we’re managed by travel advisors exclusively, we can keep our overhead very low, and we can keep our focus on the needs of travel advisors (not suppliers or destinations).
None of us knows everything about this niche—but, together, we DO know EVERYTHING!
In other words, the world’s grown too large these days for any single specialist to know the legal marriage rules for every destination, and to visit every single resort and hotel and destination where couples might go, and to master every angle of marketing and promoting our travel businesses. But, when we network together on Facebook, and we trade tips at DWHSA events, and DWHSA collects ideas from all of us to share in special reports and newsletter, we benefit from the collective knowledge of hundreds of our fellow specialists!
We won’t try to be everything to everybody—instead, we’re focused like a laser on destination weddings, honeymoons, and romantic getaways of all types.
In our training sessions, in our conferences, in our Facebook group, in our newsletters, and in everything we do, we’re not talking one day about cruise groups, then faith-based travel the next day, then family reunions the next. Instead, we’re only talking about honeymoons, destination weddings, and romantic getaways. Why? DWs and honeymoons are probably the single most profitable types of bookings advisors can make—and, they’re definitely the most fun!
Our long-term goal is increasing consumer awareness of what romance travel specialists can do for brides and couples.
We see a huge need for DWHSA to engage in consumer marketing campaigns to teach the public why it’s so beneficial to work with specialists when planning honeymoons and destination weddings.
And, we want to build DWHSA so that it speaks with ONE voice for advisors who’re dedicated to this niche!
Home Page Images: Image credits: Discover Puerto Rico (header); Playa Hotels & Resorts ("Our members know romance travel" section and "Honeymoons" section); Sandos Hotels & Resorts ("Destination weddings" and "Familymoons" sections); Allen Taylor/Unsplash ("Elopements" section); jvalley678/Pixabay ("Proposal and Engagement Trips" section); Michelle Raponi/Pixabay ("Vow Renewals" section); Brice Curry/Unsplash ("Anniversary Trips" section); "Khatu & Darren Wong's babymoon in Positano, Italy" by IamKhatu/CC BY 2.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse ("Babymoons" section); Adam Kontor/Pixabay ("Quick Romantic Getaways" section); and DreamArt Wedding Photography. We thank these companies and individuals for the use of their photos!
From its founding in January 2013, DWHSA has now grown into the world’s largest network of romance travel specialists, with more than 800 members in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, and Trinidad & Tobago. And, the best part? It’s still run by advisors, for advisors!
OUR BEGINNINGS
For many travel advisors, destination weddings and honeymoons are big business:
- 350,000 destination weddings take place every year – they’re 24 percent of all weddings, some surveys say.
- More than half of those couples report that they get outside help planning these trips.
- And, 86 percent of them still plan to take honeymoons after their destination weddings.
To help more advisors tap into this market, the DWAgents.com training group launched a series of regional workshops that began in Chicago in October 2011 and ran through late spring 2012 (Dallas, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City). “We surveyed more than 300 destination wedding and honeymoon specialists around the United States and Canada to create these courses,” noted John Hawks, the DWAgents.com administrator at the time. “We had more than 600 agents complete a class with us, in person or online, and their # 1 request for the future was ‘We need a group for professionals who’re just like us.’”
In July 2012, Lisa Sheldon—the owner of I Do Island Weddings in Janesville, Wis.—organized a by-invitation-only Facebook group for destination wedding and honeymoon planners that drew more than 200 advisors around North America as members. “I’ve found that many travel advisors want to learn more about this fun and profitable niche, but they don’t know where to start,” Lisa said. “And, advisors who’ve been selling these types of trips for years want to network with other travel professionals just like them.”
In January 2013, Lisa and John combined their efforts to organize the Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA), a brand-new organization that represents professional travel counselors who focus their businesses on honeymoons, destination weddings, and romantic travel. “We want to build a huge membership base around two types of advisors: those who’ve sold destination weddings and honeymoons for many years, and those who’re just getting their feet wet in this niche,” Lisa explained.
OUR PHILOSOPHIES
We’ve built this trade association BY TRAVEL ADVISORS, FOR TRAVEL ADVISORS.
We want to give travel professionals the tools and resources they need to build a stable, profitable, and enjoyable travel business in this niche. And, since we’re managed by travel advisors exclusively, we can keep our overhead very low, and we can keep our focus on the needs of travel advisors (not suppliers or destinations).
None of us knows everything about this niche—but, together, we DO know EVERYTHING!
In other words, the world’s grown too large these days for any single specialist to know the legal marriage rules for every destination, and to visit every single resort and hotel and destination where couples might go, and to master every angle of marketing and promoting our travel businesses. But, when we network together on Facebook, and we trade tips at DWHSA events, and DWHSA collects ideas from all of us to share in special reports and newsletter, we benefit from the collective knowledge of hundreds of our fellow specialists!
We won’t try to be everything to everybody—instead, we’re focused like a laser on destination weddings, honeymoons, and romantic getaways of all types.
In our training sessions, in our conferences, in our Facebook group, in our newsletters, and in everything we do, we’re not talking one day about cruise groups, then faith-based travel the next day, then family reunions the next. Instead, we’re only talking about honeymoons, destination weddings, and romantic getaways. Why? DWs and honeymoons are probably the single most profitable types of bookings advisors can make—and, they’re definitely the most fun!
Our long-term goal is increasing consumer awareness of what romance travel specialists can do for brides and couples.
We see a huge need for DWHSA to engage in consumer marketing campaigns to teach the public why it’s so beneficial to work with specialists when planning honeymoons and destination weddings.
And, we want to build DWHSA so that it speaks with ONE voice for advisors who’re dedicated to this niche!
Home Page Images: Image credits: Discover Puerto Rico (header); Playa Hotels & Resorts ("Our members know romance travel" section and "Honeymoons" section); Sandos Hotels & Resorts ("Destination weddings" and "Familymoons" sections); Allen Taylor/Unsplash ("Elopements" section); jvalley678/Pixabay ("Proposal and Engagement Trips" section); Michelle Raponi/Pixabay ("Vow Renewals" section); Brice Curry/Unsplash ("Anniversary Trips" section); "Khatu & Darren Wong's babymoon in Positano, Italy" by IamKhatu/CC BY 2.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse ("Babymoons" section); Adam Kontor/Pixabay ("Quick Romantic Getaways" section); and DreamArt Wedding Photography. We thank these companies and individuals for the use of their photos!