Cruise Holidays Presents "New Virtual Office of the Year” to Business Owner Bob Shaffer

Travel Business Growing by Leaps & Bounds in Charlotte, NC

Minneapolis, MN (November 8, 2010) — Cruise Holidays, North America’s oldest cruise-specialty retail franchise, presented Cruise Holidays owned by Bob Shaffer with its "New Virtual Office of the Year” award at a special ceremony during the network’s Annual Convention, being held this week at El Dorado Royale Resort & Spa in the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Shaffer joined Cruise Holidays as a home-based (virtual office) franchise owner four years ago, after a successful professional career. "For me, this was a retirement hobby business that evolved into much more,” said Shaffer. "My business has transformed from a side job into a full-fledged travel agency.”

Earlier this year, Shaffer took another leap forward with his cruise travel business, transforming it from a home-based operation to a more expansive retail office. It does not have the overhead that a traditional storefront travel agency might have, but it does allow him the freedom to grow his business in new ways, including the usage of independent contractors to help bring in even more new business and ultimately provide better service to all clients.

"At Cruise Holidays, we provide each one of our new franchise owners with what we call a ‘Success Strategy,’ and Bob has followed that formula to a ‘T.’ It has helped him grow his business beyond his initial expectations and that why he is being presented with our ‘Virtual Office of the Year’ award,” said Mark Schiffner, vice president of Cruise Holidays.

The New Virtual of the Year award was open to all virtual offices that had a full year of sales in 2009. As previously mentioned, Shaffer’s business has now grown to a retail space located at 201 West Morehead Street, Suite 400, Charlotte, NC. He does not keep set office hours but is available by appointment. To reach Shaffer, call (704) 900-1410, or go to www.shaffercruises.com.

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Cruise Holidays is the oldest cruise-specialty retail franchise in North America, with franchisees in both the United States and Canada. Cruise Holidays is also a distinguished provider of land tour vacation packages. Founded in 1984, Cruise Holidays is part of Travel Leaders Group. With approximately 1,300 travel agency locations in the United States and Canada, Travel Leaders Group serves millions of individual leisure travelers, as well as select corporate clients and destinations.