The Travel Franchise announces new chief commercial officer

The franchise headhunted ‘high achieving’ Chris Harrison as its CCO

Multi award-winning travel franchise company The Travel Franchise has appointed Chris Harrison as its chief commercial officer, the first of a number of new high-profile roles within the company. Chris takes on this pivotal role with over 24 years of experience in travel, and a diversified skill set from roles in both large and medium-sized companies.

Chris is the first of multiple C-Suite appointments at the company. Co-founders Paul Harrison and Steve Witt are surrounding themselves with key industry talent and experience as the company moves into its next phase of growth.

As managing director of Dawson and Sanderson, and formerly head of trade sales, head of trade purchasing and distribution director roles at Thomas Cook, Chris is a huge asset to the newly created leadership team and brings with him a wealth of experience and connections.

In his new role, Chris will oversee all aspects of business development and revenue generation for The Travel Franchise’s members, including some of the most important areas of the business such as learning and development opportunities and creating better tools, systems and technology for consultants to utilise.

Franchisees with The Travel Franchise train to become fully expert travel consultants with Not Just Travel, the company’s consumer-facing brand. Chris will also oversee the expansion of the Not Just Travel trade team as it continues its focus on supporting their trade partners.

In 2022 and through the start of 2023, Not Just Travel developed stronger trade partnerships with the primary remit of growing sales through better collaboration, tools and learning.

Chris says: “Together, The Travel Franchise and its consumer brand Not Just Travel is an exceptional business that I’m proud to be a part of. I’m excited by Paul and Steve’s vision and the potential of the company and can’t wait to take the business to the next level.

“Already I can see how they have nurtured a supportive culture and family feel for both its staff and travel consultants. The Travel Franchise is progressive, dynamic and forward-thinking and dovetails with my values. Together, we will take the company on a massive growth trajectory.”

Co-founder Paul Harrison adds: “The Travel Franchise has transitioned from being a fantastic business for people new to the industry, to one that now creates a world-class platform for our partners to succeed long term.

“Our partners are our amazing franchise network, corporate team and trade partners. We strongly believe in the mantra ‘to build the business you build the people’, and this will be at the forefront of Chris’ objectives”.

This is reflected in the number of franchisees who are in their second and third contract period with the company and who have enjoyed huge success, and is possibly why they continue to attract record numbers of new travel consultants each month, and more recently people with travel experience.

Co-founder Steve Witt continues: “We were highly selective in who we wanted for this unique and important role and so asked the best leaders in our industry who they would recommend. Chris’ name kept coming back to us time and time again.

“His excellent reputation precedes him and we knew he was the best person for the job. He is a high-achiever who has generated high growth in companies of similar size to us.

“It’s a big signing for us, and kicks off our game-changing senior and middle management recruitment drive. We already have an incredible team who got us where we are today, but we are elevating our talent above and beyond what we have ever done before.”

Having achieved over 150 per cent growth since 2021, mostly with reduced staffing numbers coming out of covid, Paul and Steve have set huge goals for the company in the coming years and with a newly defined strategy these upcoming c-suite appointments, along with a newly created Board of Directors will build upon the very strong foundations already placed.

Paul and Steve add: “We are excited by the quality of the talent we are attracting to implement our goals and vision. Chris is the first of many new faces that will be joining the company over the coming weeks and months and we look forward to announcing more.”