Tina Higgins

Tina Higgins owns a Cruise Planners franchise and works as a travel advisor focused on cruises. She purchased the franchise about 10 years ago as a second career to stay busy in retirement and transitioned to full-time work in the industry approximately 9 years ago. Prior to this, Tina worked in IT as Director of IT for an appellate court, a role that equipped her with strong technical skills that have aided her in using the tech tools offered by Cruise Planners. Although she initially found the more personal aspects of the business, such as social media outreach, challenging, she has grown more comfortable with these elements over time. Tina appreciates the positive nature of her current work, where clients are excited about upcoming vacations, in contrast to the problem-solving focus of her IT career. She values the support from Cruise Planners, including training, marketing assistance, and vendor negotiations, and notes that the organization is led by a woman, Michelle Fee, with the majority of franchise owners being women.