11/09/2026
Twenty years ago today, two men with no travel experience signed the paperwork for a travel company. The very next morning, every plane in the world was grounded.
That was the day before 9/11, and it is where the story of The Travel Franchise begins. Paul Harrison and Steve Witt had just lost most of their money, and they had chosen to start a travel business at the single worst moment imaginable. The company that sold them the franchise even rang to offer their money back. They said no.
They were not travel experts. They were two people who wanted out of working for someone else, who wanted to build something of their own, and who believed other people wanted exactly the same thing. So while the rest of the industry pulled back, they kept going. They got through 9/11. They got through a recession. They got through a pandemic that shut down global travel overnight. And every single time, they came back stronger.
Twenty years on, that little company started on the worst possible day has been named the best lifestyle franchise in the world, two years running. But the part Paul and Steve are proudest of has never been the awards. It is the hundreds of people from all walks of life who have taken their love of travel and turned it into a business of their own. People who no longer answer to a nine to five. People who choose their own hours, who are there for the school run, who work around what actually matters to them, and who do it all in an industry built on the happiest thing there is. Holidays.
That was the whole point from the very beginning. Two people who wanted a better way to live and work, helping others find the same thing.
Twenty years in, we are only just getting started.
