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

“We have just crossed $1 billion in bookings and two million room nights. So when people say, can new people come in and build serious businesses, I say, ‘It’s a billion dollars. That’s pretty serious’.”

Henley Vasquez mixed the serious with the social as the co-founder of Fora Travel launched the Canadian arm of its business at 1 Hotel in Toronto on Tuesday (April 22) for an invite-only gathering of Fora travel advisors, partners and media.

Vasquez, who herself became a travel advisor in 2008, was in a celebratory mood on her first visit to Toronto. The team has wasted no time in signing up travel advisors in Canada, most of whom are new to the business and who are embracing the technology and training Fora provides.

“We’re so excited to officially be up here with our favourite northern neighbours,” said Vasquez. “People are asking, what’s going on in the economy and tariffs and what’s going to happen to travel? But when I look at our data, the answer is people are going to continue to travel. They just may make different choices.”

Natalie Lum-Tai, general counsel and Canada lead for Fora, said the host agency, which is based in New York City, is committed to building tools that provide training for the trade community so they can teach their clients about responsible and sustainable travel.

“To become experts and being that customized advisor that can take people to places less travelled,” she said. “We are so thankful for you guys believing in us and being a part of this next chapter in Fora’s history.”

Fora & TICO

Speaking with PAX, Vasquez addressed some concerns that have been raised about Fora, including claims that the host agency was recruiting advisors in Ontario prior to obtaining its TICO certification.

Under Ontario law, any company that has a presence in Ontario and has someone selling travel from the province needs to be registered with TICO.

In addition, any advisors working for Fora in Ontario would need to have completed their TICO certification.

“We started to see a lot of advisors joining up here and building really interesting businesses,” Vasquez said. “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.”

The specifics around Fora’s initial operations in Ontario are unclear.

“If a company has ‘feet on the ground’ in Ontario, with advisors selling travel from the province, that company would need to be registered with TICO even if they are headquartered in a different province or country,” Dorian Werda, TICO’s registrar, told PAX.

Werda added that TICO's compliance team works to bring any unregistered operators into compliance.

Similarly, under Ontario law, a TICO registered agency can’t do business with someone who should be registered but isn’t, Werda said.

According to TICO, Fora Travel Inc. obtained its certification on March 14, 2025.

Governments bumping heads

As for introducing a U.S.-based host agency during the global trade war, Vasquez is optimistic.

“It made me want to lean in even more. I think you know our countries – we 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.”

Errors & emissions insurance

In regard to errors and emissions insurance, Vasquez explained Fora has a blanket policy that covers everyone, but they say to all Fora advisors that once their business hits a certain level of sales ($300,000+), they get their own.

“For those getting started, the last thing we want is to create more friction for them when they should be focused on training and getting their first bookings done,” she said.

“Fixing the travel advisor business”

Fora positions itself as “fixing the travel advisor business.” We asked what was broken, and how they were fixing it.

“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.”

Certainly, they are getting new blood into the business. Vasquez said 97 per cent of their advisors are new to the industry.

In her toast to the crowd, Vasquez took a look at the industry as a whole, seeing room for growth, beyond the billion dollars.

“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.”

Vasquez later addressed the enthusiastic crowd of new Fora travel advisors.

“Congratulations to every single person here for doing the hard thing of starting a business, because as somebody who's done this for a long time, it is incredibly inspiring to be a part of all of your successes,” she said. “I’m thrilled to officially be a part of Canada now and look forward to having this be a community where I can come up here more often, because I quite like it.”

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