Fora Travel expands into British Columbia

Following its Ontario debut earlier this year, U.S.-based Fora Travel has officially expanded into British Columbia, the company announced Thursday (July 17).

Now officially registered with Consumer Protection B.C., the “next generation” host agency is welcoming residents across the province to its tech-forward platform, unlocking new opportunities for West Coast travel advisors of all experience levels.

“Expanding to British Columbia is an exciting milestone in Fora’s Canadian journey,” said Henley Vazquez, Co-Founder of Fora Travel, in a press release. “British Columbia is home to many adventurous, passionate and globally-minded travellers eager to turn that passion into a viable business. We’ve seen incredible momentum in Ontario, and are thrilled to welcome West Coast advisors to our industry-leading platform.”

READ MORE: U.S.-based host agency Fora forges ahead in Ontario

Fora recently released its summer 2025 booking data revealing that Canada is not only one of the agency’s top 10 most booked global destinations, but advisor bookings to Canada for this summer are up 196 per cent year-over-year, with Vancouver being the most booked Canadian city.

The surge in demand makes the B.C. underscores the need for more Canadian advisors who can "expertly plan domestic trips," the company said.

Joining Fora comes with an annual membership fee of $399, which provides full access to an Advisor Portal and fully-supported platform.

READ MORE: Fora Travel raises $60M on the heels of Ontario launch

One recent addition is a new price drop feature, which automatically monitors every refundable GDS hotel booking.

If the rate for the same room drops by at least five per cent and $50, advisors are alerted and can rebook at the lower rate or upgrade the client to a better room for the same price.

Since launching the feature this month, “Fora Advisors have already saved clients hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the company said.

For “travel entrepreneurs”

Founded in 2021, Fora says it aims to empower a new generation of travel agents, or “travel entrepreneurs,” giving anyone the opportunity to earn income through bookings.

This past spring, the company raised $60 million in Series B and C rounds. Fora co-founder Evan Frank shared the news on LinkedIn on April 24, saying the investment will be used "to modernize the travel industry for good."

"We are confident our thesis will continue to be proven correct: By empowering a growing community to build careers they love, lowering the barrier to start and stay a travel entrepreneur, we've created a new channel of distribution for our partners that provides the best of all worlds – higher quality clients at a lower overall cost in a single channel – at scale,” he wrote.

The funding will also better position entrepreneurs in the era of artificial intelligence, the company noted in a press release at the time. 

Ontario launch

The New York City-based company recently expanded its operations to Ontario. At a launch party held in Toronto on April 22, company co-founder Henley Vasquez said “we’re so excited to officially be up here with our favourite northern neighbours.”

When asked about a U.S.-based host agency entering Canada during a global trade war, Vasquez was optimistic.

“It made me want to lean in even more. Our countries are neighbours and friends,” she said. “And even though our governments may be bumping heads at the moment (our government is bumping heads in many places), I think it was part of getting our licensing here. We support Canadian businesses – not just as an extension of an American business, but as truly Canadian small businesses, as travel entrepreneurs.”

“We want Canadian advisors, and Canadian clients, to feel they can operate within their country.”

Fora obtained its TICO certification on March 14, 2025.

“We started to see a lot of advisors joining up here and building really interesting businesses,” Vasquez told PAX in April. “People who were in the industry, as well as newcomers.”

In the beginning, the Ontario-based individuals who joined Fora were treated like American-run businesses, Vasquez said.

“We answered the request, which was to get TICO [certified], which is not easy,” she said. “Part of getting TICO certified was so that advisors could [operate in Ontario]. That made a lot of sense because they couldn’t book certain things.”

“Fixing the travel advisor business”

At that launch event in Toronto, Vasquez added that Fora is about “fixing the travel advisor business.”

“I have two big frustrations with the industry,” said Vasquez. “One is the lack of technology. Everything was so analog. No one was building truly-integrated tools. The second part is that it’s a really gatekept industry. We did a great job of not letting new people in. Those are two ways I think Fora is coming at this: how do you bring in new blood, new clients, and new advisors into the industry, and how do you empower them with better tooling to run their businesses on.”

She said 97 per cent of Fora’s advisors are new to the travel industry.

“Our space is still quite small compared to what this industry is overall,” she said. “$1.8 trillion dollars in global commissionable bookings. About half of that is hotel bookings. About eight per cent of that is actually booked by travel advisors. There is nothing but room to grow.”

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