As a girl growing up in eastern Pennsylvania, Jennifer Byrne used to play “travel agent” in her family’s basement with the neighborhood kids. Fast forward a few decades, and Byrne is the CEO of The Tropical Travelers, an internationally recognized agency where she and her team of 12 specialize in romance travel and honeymoons.
Byrne started her career at Apple Vacations, and she credits the company’s training program as a significant driver of her business success. After that, she worked at several travel agencies, a cruise reservation company and as an outside sales agent — all experiences that primed her to strike out on her own in 2001. A passion for creating custom packages for travelers inspired her to start the business, and that ethos still guides her work today.
“It’s always been the same philosophy: How do we delight the client and how do we keep them happy? That was the whole premise,” Byrne says, adding that she’d never just hand a client a brochure and send them on their way.
In addition to her hands-on, custom workflow, Byrne emphasizes her love for luxury resorts and her delight in spoiling her clients no matter their budget. The Tropical Travelers team is especially attuned to destinations where travelers can bask in the sun and feel the sand under their toes. “My tagline is ‘anywhere with a palm tree,’” she says.
Jennifer Byrne enjoys a cocktail in the sun. (Photo by Jennifer Byrne)
When Byrne started her business, she was at the age where her friends were getting married, so she knew what potential customers would look for when planning honeymoons or destination weddings. Now, she’s working with those same clients to plan couples group trips and family vacations.
Given the interest in and increasing demand for destination weddings, The Tropical Travelers opened a branch called One Love Destination Weddings. One of Byrne’s long-time advisors heads up this division and helps couples through every step of the wedding planning journey. Planning any wedding — whether at a banquet hall in the States or a coconut grove in Punta Cana — can be a challenging endeavor. The One Love team offers a list of destination ideas, inspiration photos, nuts-and-bolts advice and expert guidance to demystify the process.
For fellow travel advisors who want to wield Cupid’s arrow and book more destination weddings or romance travel, Byrne has several pieces of practical advice:
- Travel often. It’s important to see hotels in-person and keep an eye on what clients might like or dislike. She travels eight to 10 times each year and scrutinizes every detail at a hotel, such as service attentiveness, food quality, cleanliness and safety. To showcase The Tropical Travelers’ love for adventure, Byrne maintains a photo album of her team’s own tropical travels on the company’s website.
- Know what’s next. Byrne keeps a close eye on what’s trending. For example, she says, Curacao’s been getting a lot of recent attention, so she traveled to the Caribbean island with several fellow travel advisors. They each stayed at different hotels, so they could eat the food and sleep in the beds at different properties. It’s crucial to be at the forefront of the industry and to see what’s new in person, Byrne says. “I like to be on the cutting edge. I want to see it,” she says. “Get in there and see what's going on first.”
- Understand the client’s budget. Luxury doesn’t always mean staying at the Ritz or the Four Seasons. Instead, it’s about finding a way to wow the client within their given price point.
- Ask the right questions. When Byrne meets a client, she starts with a wish list of questions to discover a person’s style and taste: What do you like and dislike? Where else have you traveled? Beach or pool? Luxury hotel or condo? Once she completes the list, she knows exactly where to recommend.
- Provide options. Byrne has traveled so widely that she can offer tailored recommendations for each person. She narrows the list down to three options, which gives the client a choice of resorts based on what’s best for them.
- Feel a passion for the market. Most importantly, Byrne says, advisors working in honeymoons and weddings must genuinely desire to help clients make the most of their romantic travel experience.
For more information visit https://thetropicaltravelers.com/
Article originally appeared in the Fall 2022 issue of The Compass magazine.
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