It was a year ago January, that Tannis Dyrland knew she wanted to break from her host agency and become independent, with the goal to empower woman in the industry.
By September she launched Tisson Travel Group, a group of nine female-owned agencies in Alberta and by December, sales were double her entire previous year.
“I've watched these women soar, they have been incredible,” she tells TravelPulse Canada during an interview last week.
“It's the best decision I've ever made. It has been incredibly empowering for all the agencies involved, for them to own their own, and to make it theirs and to be able to work with our team to create their own business and their own brand.”
Dyrland comes by entrepreneurship honestly; after all she is the woman who actually patented a curse word with The Fu*k-It List™️, created the Mile High Cocktails kits and also hosts her podcast – “Travel With Tannis.”
Helping women in the industry succeed is a logical next step for her, especially when given the most recent statistics: according to ACTA’s 2021 Recovery Plan, approximately half of the 24,000 travel agents in Canada are independent travel agent entrepreneurs (self-employed workers) with 75% being women.
“I think that there's a lot to be said, when you feel empowered to run your business, how it works for you. I think it's really very easy to get stuck on the wheel of ‘this is what I do, so this is what I do.’ But that changes when you hand somebody an opportunity and say, hey, here you go create your craft and work with us on our team."
Carolina Bellina, Tannis Dyrland and Carlo Trinidad (Photo Credit: Photo: Greg Coates)
Tisson Travel Group has implemented full digital marketing, including a full Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform for each agency which is used more as a lead generator and time saver for agencies. It allows for the answering of simple travel questions, like “what is great to do in Rome?” and then directs the potential traveller with the agent for more in-depth help.
She’s also implemented a brand-new training program, as part of TRAVELSAVERS’ Kore to help attract new people to the industry who have a love of travel but also an entrepreneurial spirit. (That’s something that ACTA plans to focus on in 2024 as well, which was a component of their annual conference late last year). Under KORE, trainees have up to six months to complete a course, which includes time spent with a mentor in their local area. The program is college-level and after graduation, they are matched with a job in the industry. The cost of the program is only $1,000 and is available across the country, through Dyrland is a mentor in Alberta.
Dyrland says watching the woman at Tisson Travel Group succeed has been the most rewarding part of her new venture.
“Our industry can be really soul sucking, it can be really tiring, and it can be really thankless.But when you create something that every day you feel thankful and grateful for, it fuels an energy. All our agencies are charging service fees, and they have no problem charging service fees, because they are now valuing their business.”
Value yourself and set that precedence for professionalism for what you're doing. I'm so proud of them.”
Though she’s coming off the “best year of her life”, for many reasons, Dyrland says in 2024 she doesn’t have any desire to be a company with a hundred agencies, she wants to keep her community as tight as it is.
“I feel like the bigger it gets, the more disconnected everybody gets. And I just can't have that. I'm not looking to be bigger or the biggest. I'm looking to just be the strongest presence in Alberta.”
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