TORONTO — With its new partnership with the Wedding Planners Institute of Canada (WPIC), TravelOnly will offer WPIC graduates exclusive fees and access to TravelOnly programs, services and fam trips.‎ “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” says Gregory Luciani, President and CEO of TravelOnly.

The partnership, announced earlier this month, allows WPIC graduates to become certified travel agents with TravelOnly upon graduation.

WPIC graduates will still need to fulfill all of the standard requirements of becoming a travel agent (including any regulatory and compliance programs such as TICO) prior to booking travel with TravelOnly, said Luciani.

And while WPIC has a global reach, with some 6,500 members around the world, at this time the program will allow only Canadian graduates to become members of TravelOnly.

This type of formalized partnership is a first for TravelOnly but the host agency is “always looking for opportunities to partner with high quality organizations where combining business, training and travel makes sense to further enhance the Associate experience and benefits,” said Luciani.

The Canadian wedding industry is worth some $5 billion per year and last year 30,363 couples hired a professional wedding planner, according to WPIC. WPIC offers Wedding Planner courses as well certification for Destination Wedding Coordinators.

Luciani said growing consumer interest in destination weddings meant that a partnership with WPIC was a natural fit. TravelOnly has over 600 independent agents.

“We are pleased to be working with another organization that shares our vision of continuous education and recognize that there are many opportunities that will provide greater value to our members by working closer together,” he said.

“The partnership of TravelOnly and WPIC gives us the opportunity to offer our WPIC Alumni further education and professional development within the world of travel, romance and destination weddings,” said WPIC Co-Founders Danielle Andrews and Tracey Manailescu. “We strongly believe in the adage of ‘never stop learning’ and feel that this venture will help our members do just that. TravelOnly has a strong and professional brand that has stood out to us for many years.  We feel confident that this is the beginning of a wonderful relationship.”

In addition to training and certifying independent and onsite resort wedding coordinators, WPIC developed the world’s first Destination Wedding Coordinator certification course in 2005.

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