Travel advisors form the core of the Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA). Based on their support, we are now the world’s largest agent-run specialty travel association (with more than 800 members around the United States, Canada, and other countries).
To qualify for membership as a travel advisor, you must currently (a) sell destination weddings and honeymoons or (b) sell other types of travel with plans to learn how to sell romance travel. Also, your travel business must comply with all licensing and registration laws in the places where you’re based and where you serve clients. Finally, you must have a valid travel industry booking ID number (ARC, IATA/IATAN, CLIA, TRUE). The current annual dues rate is USD$199.
Below, we’ve collected the major benefits we offer romance travel specialists. Click here to submit your application to join our group – and if you have questions, please reach out to us at 615.730.9977 or [email protected]!
To qualify for membership as a travel advisor, you must currently (a) sell destination weddings and honeymoons or (b) sell other types of travel with plans to learn how to sell romance travel. Also, your travel business must comply with all licensing and registration laws in the places where you’re based and where you serve clients. Finally, you must have a valid travel industry booking ID number (ARC, IATA/IATAN, CLIA, TRUE). The current annual dues rate is USD$199.
Below, we’ve collected the major benefits we offer romance travel specialists. Click here to submit your application to join our group – and if you have questions, please reach out to us at 615.730.9977 or [email protected]!
Our Members-Only Facebook Group
You’ll have immediate, around-the-clock access to our private, closed, secret Facebook group reserved for travel advisor members only. (Suppliers, destinations, and consumers have NO access.) You may post questions and tips to share with fellow romance travel advisors – anything from reviews of a new resort to requests for help with a difficult client – and your fellow DWHSA agents will post replies and ideas to help you. This extremely active (and supportive!) network is probably our most popular member benefit! |
"How to Sell Romance Travel" Course
We offer a comprehensive online class (with more than 50 video-based lessons) covering everything from finding romance travel clients and satisfying the expectations of clients (from Baby Boomers to Millennials and Gen Zers) to marketing and promoting your self as romance travel specialists and solving the most common issues that crop up with these bookings. It’s included FREE as part of your DWHSA membership. You may take these lessons at your own pace from start to finish – or, you may prefer to pick and choose specific lessons to watch. Beyond the course, we offer more training programs to help you grow your business – from our one-day online Romance Travel Boot Camps and special classes with well-known wedding and marketing trainers to three-night workshops in areas such as LGBT romance travel and South Asian DWs and our biennial conferences. |
Live Webinars + Training Video Library
We produce two to three live webinars each week, all year round, that focus on the latest news about the resorts, ships, and destinations our members offer their clients (as well as marketing and management topics from using Facebook and Instagram to handling the back-office chores that come with romance travel bookings). Then, we’ve stored those webinar videos inside DWHSAMembers.com (our members-only site) to create the world’s largest on-demand training library (available to you 24/7/365 as part of your membership). |
Weekly Newsletters
To keep you updated on what’s happening in romance travel, we send an email newsletter every Monday collecting the week's bridal, honeymoon, and travel headlines. You can catch up with these quick reads (and, you’re welcome to pull content to use in your client newsletters and social media posts). |
The Online Resource Center
Inside DWHSAMembers.com, you’ll find LOTS of helpful tools in the Resource Center – from sample client agreements and lists of questions to ask in your consultations to DW planning timelines and warning letters to give clients to avoid timeshare sales. And, because you’re a member, they’re FREE for you to use. |
RomanceTravelSpecialists.com
We are currently building this directory site for consumers to search for - and contact - its members for help planning their destination weddings, honeymoons, and other romantic trips. You'll have your own FREE profile page that you may set up with your own photos, business description, specialities, social media pages/accounts, and your direct contact information! (Note: The site will be launched fully to the public in the fall of 2024.) |
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
To help members network with each other, we've created six groups that meet monthly or bimonthly via Zoom so they can discuss critical issues and exchange tips and advice with each other. We have SIGs for members who focus on destination weddings, those who sell honeymoons, advisers who are new to romance travel, those who are million-dollar producers, host agency owners, and our members in Canada. (After each meeting, we share "key takeaway" notes so you'll benefit even if you can't attend the "live" sessions.) |
Our Certification Programs
We've created the ONLY romance travel certification program in the global travel industry that's managed by advisors who actually work with brides and couples every day! The basic certification is built on our "How to Sell Romance Travel" course. Members must pass an online exam before earning the "Certified Destination Wedding, Honeymoon, and Romance Travel Specialist" designation. Beyond that, we have a "Certified Master Specialist" program that may require up to a year of effort to attain (including requirements for a white paper, a marketing plan, and other steps). Once a year, we offer a course (led by the amazing Cherie Ronning!) to become a "Certified Destination Wedding Ceremony Planner" that featured wedding planner training so members may begin charging fees for offering couples direct help with their ceremonies.) |
Fam Trips and Workshops
We partner with tourism offices and key suppliers to plan half a dozen approved fam trips each year. Recent trips have focused on Antigua & Barbuda, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Fiji, Italy, Mexico, and South Africa - and we have more than a dozen trips already planned for 2024! Also, we offer three-night certification workshops in key niches such as South Asian destination weddings and LGBTQ romance travel. These trips include hands-on training conducted by the world's leading experts in these areas (e.g., the South Asian Wedding Institute, the Equality Institute). |
The Romance Travel University
Every two years, our members gather for their three-day membership conference: the Romance Travel University. This event brings together more than 150 members for in-depth seminars and workshops, "roundtable" sessions for sharing the latest ideas for selling romance travel and serving couples, and face-to-face meetings with the world's leading suppliers in this niche. |
Our Logo (and Our Advocacy)
Stand apart from the crowd by displaying your official DWHSA Member Logo on your site, on your business cards, in your wedding show booths – everywhere! And, by joining our group, you’ll give us even greater strength to defend your interests as we deal with suppliers that have agent-unfriendly policies and to promote your professionalism to consumer and trade media. |