When it comes to building a successful business together, husband and wife team DeWayne and Meredith Tudor of Simple Traveler Vacations have learned a lesson or two over the years. From determining their strengths and roles within their travel agency to developing Alaska Cruise Planning, a passion project devoted to planning travel to a destination they both love, DeWayne and Meredith have keen insight to share with both new and seasoned travel agents.
Their latest creative venture is partnering with cruise suppliers to create their agency’s own national holiday – National Alaska Cruise Week, celebrated the third week of August.
What do you think sets you apart as a top-producing agency?
Meredith: Our lifestyle forced us to build the business differently. DeWayne is a travel nurse, so we move to a different part of the country every few months for his contracts. We could not rely on being deeply connected to one local community, which meant we had to learn how to build relationships and create a community online.
We also realized that trying to sell everything to everyone was not going to be the best way to grow. When I started Simple Traveler Vacations, I booked whatever came through the door, and that was exactly what I needed to do at the time. A few years later, we looked at what we were actually selling and saw Alaska at the top of the list year after year. Instead of treating that as a coincidence, we treated it as a signal and decided to invest more intentionally in that part of the business.
DeWayne: We are also two very different people with complementary roles. Meredith manages most of the client experience and booking process. I focus more heavily on marketing, communication, and bringing new clients into the business.
How did you grow your client base in the beginning, and how do you continue to attract new clients today?
Meredith: In the beginning, it was entirely people I knew and then people they knew. There was not much of a strategy. I simply tried to take great care of every client, and one referral led to another.
Our first hosted Alaska group cruise in 2023 was a major turning point. It was our first time hosting a group trip and our first time visiting Alaska. The trip was successful, the demand was strong, and we have hosted an Alaska group cruise every summer since.
Today, we are much more intentional. We do not simply wait for referrals. We work hard to stay connected with our existing clients through our weekly newsletter and individual communication. That same thinking led us to create Alaska Cruise Planning, a specialized branch of our agency designed to help first-time Alaska cruisers have a better experience.
The idea is not just to book someone’s Alaska cruise. We want to earn their trust, help them travel well, and hopefully become the travel agents they return to when they are ready to go somewhere else.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
Meredith: I wish I had a tidy answer, but our days are very fluid. We are averaging two or three Alaska cruise requests a day, in addition to requests for Europe, the Caribbean, Japan, Hawaii, and just about anywhere else you can name. A large part of my day is spent researching, planning, and managing client bookings. And then, of course, I’m Bill Coyle’s assistant, so I have those responsibilities as well.
DeWayne: When I am not working at the hospital, I am usually planning our weekly newsletters, creating social media content, and looking for new ways to connect with travelers through both Simple Traveler Vacations and Alaska Cruise Planning.
Can you share a strategy or tool that has been a game changer for your business?
Meredith: The real game changer has been learning to become the answer to the questions people are already asking and then showing up in the places where they are looking for those answers.
Travelers are no longer searching in only one place. They may use Google, social media, ChatGPT, or another AI platform. That means we have to be generous with our knowledge and consistently publish useful information. We use search engine optimization and AI tools to help us understand what people want to know, but the strategy matters more than any individual tool.
DeWayne: I regularly use tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to identify common questions about Alaska cruising. We then turn those questions into blog articles, social media posts, newsletter topics, and other educational content.
You cannot establish authority online while keeping all your knowledge hidden. If we want travelers (and the platforms they are using) to recognize our expertise, we have to demonstrate it. We do not gatekeep our knowledge. Many of the people who eventually reach out have been quietly following us for months. By the time we speak with them, they already understand how we think and trust our expertise. That is a very different conversation from speaking with a completely cold lead. Giving people real answers builds far more trust than dangling a small piece of information and withholding the rest.
What KHM Travel Group tools, resources, or education would you recommend to new agents?
Meredith: Boot Camp 1.0, without question. I attended in 2022, and it gave me confidence in both the business and the products I was selling. Before Boot Camp, I did not always know what I was supposed to do. The experience helped me understand the booking process, communicate with clients more confidently, and believe that I could figure out how to build this business.
It also gave me relationships within the host agency and the travel industry. This can be a lonely business, especially when you are starting out, and some of the people I met at Boot Camp are still part of my network today.
As your business grows, I also recommend building meaningful relationships with your business development managers. Do not view BDMs only as people to contact when something goes wrong. Connect with the representatives for the suppliers you genuinely want to sell. Learn their products, build those relationships, and ask them to help you grow your business.
DeWayne: Destination Success has been the most valuable KHM Travel Group event for me. It gave me an opportunity to meet BDMs, discuss marketing strategies with them, and learn from other travel agents. I have only technically been an agent for about a year and a half, but I came away from that event last year and this year with an incredible amount of practical knowledge.
How did the idea for creating a designated holiday with National Day Calendar come about?
Meredith: I do not always like taking the same route as everyone else. We were looking for creative, strategic ways to increase awareness of Alaska Cruise Planning and keep the brand familiar to travelers.
I started thinking about all the designated days that already exist (National Donut Day, National Daughter Day, and so many others) and I thought, why could we not create a day around a destination we love, especially during a time when travelers are beginning to plan and book it?
The goal is not only to create attention for our business. We want the day to celebrate Alaska, support tourism in the state, and encourage people to experience an extraordinary destination.
Why is Alaska a favorite destination of yours?
Meredith: Alaska is breathtaking, peaceful, and awe-inspiring. Caribbean cruises can be lively and high-energy, but Alaska is next-level incredible. There is a quietness and a sense of scale that makes everything feel regal and majestic.
Seeing a humpback whale for the first time is an experience unlike anything else. Eagles are so common that you start joking that they are Alaska’s version of squirrels, but it never stops being amazing to see them.
I also love that Alaska is more accessible than many travelers assume, while still offering so much to explore. One cruise only shows you the tip of the iceberg. There is the interior, a land-based adventure, wildlife, the Alaska Railroad, Northern Lights experiences in the winter, 8 national parks, and completely different itineraries and regions to explore. You can return year after year and still have a new experience.
DeWayne: Alaska is one of the wildest places I have ever visited. There is nothing quite like sailing into Glacier Bay and looking at land that has been protected and largely untouched. Much of Southeast Alaska gives you that same feeling as you cruise through the fjords.
It reminds me of standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon. You suddenly realize how small you are in comparison with the world around you. Alaska creates that feeling over and over again. From a travel agent’s perspective, it makes our job easier because the destination does so much of the selling for us.
What advice would you offer new agents who want to sell Alaska?
Meredith: Experience it for yourself. Alaska is difficult to sell well without understanding how different it is from other cruise destinations.
You need to prepare clients for the experience and set realistic expectations. They cannot cruise directly to Denali. They will not see the aurora during every part of the cruise season. The ships, routes, ports, transportation, weather, and land options all have their own nuances.
When we hosted our first Alaska group, it was also our first time visiting. I was honest with our clients about that, did extensive research, learned the Princess product we were sailing, and set expectations carefully. We experienced Alaska together. After returning multiple times, I now understand and sell the destination very differently.
Take the supplier training, study the tourism-board resources, learn the ships, and understand what happens in each port. Alaska is too complex to sell casually.
DeWayne: Alaska cruising is not Caribbean cruising. The excursions are often more expensive, more involved, and more closely tied to the destination. On many ships, the onboard experience is also built around Alaska, with naturalists, destination programming, wildlife viewing, and other region-specific experiences.
There are practical differences, too. Clients may arrive and discover that the sun is still up at 11:00 at night and rises again very early in the morning. Those details affect the experience. The more firsthand knowledge you have, the better you can help clients choose the right itinerary, ship, cabin, and excursions.
Thank you, Meredith and DeWayne for sharing your creative strategies and passion behind your business. If you’re ready to take the next step in an existing career in travel, become a travel agent with KHM Travel Group!
