Do you know your town inside and out? Do friends always ask you for recommendations on the latest hot spots and cool places to visit? Do you love showing your area to travelers and visitors? Then Travel Host might be the franchise business opportunity for you. Travel Host is a distributor network of associate publishers, independent entrepreneurs who work to bring local businesses and travelers together through magazines about specific travel destinations.
Each magazine is a local publication with advertisements and articles about the franchisee’s area. Print magazines are placed in locations where travelers are likely to find them, such as hotels, timeshares, and various destinations and attractions. There’s also an online version of each magazine; check out those for Branson, Missouri, and Tampa Bay, Florida. There’s a phone app, too. This strong distribution helps publishers appeal to advertisers.
Travel Host works with national advertisers and helps franchisee publishers court local businesses for articles and advertisements. Articles, covers, and other general content are provided by the company, as are the online magazine and apps. Travel Host also assists with printing. Franchisees earn money by selling advertisements and advertorials in the magazine.
Franchisees need to be self-motivated individuals who have experience in an industry that will help them succeed, such as hospitality and travel or advertising and marketing. Franchisees should also know their market well and have great contacts or a personality that opens doors and opportunities. There is a lot of flexibility to the program and franchisees can work part-time from home, or make it into a full-time career with an office location and a staff to assist in the publication. The only limit to a franchisee’s ability to succeed is how much time and effort they want to put into the publication and the pool of potential advertisers in their area.
Franchisees often do best in areas that are popular tourist destinations with a large number of attractions, such as New Orleans or Denver. The key to success with Travel Host is being motivated to reach out to businesses in the community to generate advertisement contracts. Being able to write advertorials or to work with freelance writers to do so is also a requirement, but many of the typical tasks of putting out a magazine are covered. Associate publishers can focus on marketing and growing their business.
The Travel Host business model allows franchisees a high level of control over their business. Travel Host uses strong editorial techniques to maintain a high level of professionalism across their locally owned and operated magazines to keep the brand intact and valuable. While this might be constricting to some, others can see the guidance during the editorial process as invaluable.
If you’re interested in helping travelers get to know your area better and make money while doing it, Travel Host might be a good franchise option. There are a few states which do not currently have access to the opportunity, but most areas are available.
