"We're bringing on 10 to 12 advisors a month": Nexion "CanEx" reports Canada growth

“Travel is not down, it’s just shifting,” Jackie Friedman, president of Nexion Travel Group, told PAX at CANex 2026 in Toronto on Tuesday (April 28).

Held April 27-28 at the Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel, the event marked Nexion’s first dedicated Canadian conference, bringing advisors from coast to coast together for two days of workshops, supplier sessions, peer discussion, a preferred partner trade show and networking.

“We've been in the Canadian market since 2013,” Friedman said.  “It was important to us to do something for this community specifically.”

The idea grew out of “Canada Day,” a pre-conference gathering Nexion had long held for Canadian members ahead of its larger North American conference. 

Friedman said strong response to those sessions helped spark the idea for a standalone Canadian event. 

“Two years ago, there was just such a great vibe in the room that Heather Kindred, our senior vice president, said: what if we did a CoNexion in Canada? And there was a pretty overwhelming response,” said Friedman.

This year, that response became a new Canadian event. “We wanted to do a multi-day event where people could really start feeling that sense of community within Canada, building and expanding their networks, getting some good content from our partners, getting some good education, getting some great collaboration,” Friedman said.

Technology was a major focus at CANex. 

Friedman said advisors received updates on Nexion’s operating system upgrade, new partnerships, including Tern and SNAP, the host agency’s upgraded air booking platform for Canadian members.

The two-day event also included an advisor peer panel with Lisa Gillis, Nexion Canada staff BDM, and Nexion advisors Kimberly McPhail, Gene Jochen and Lisa Dunne, who discussed the importance of specialization, client education, organization and setting boundaries in a business where advisors are often expected to be available around the clock.

Friedman said building community was central to the event, especially because many advisors work independently. 

“A lot of them work on their own from home, so having that community is so important,” she said. “Once they come to this event, they make those connections and those continue.”

For Friedman, the advisors’ response validated the decision to bring CoNexion to Canada. 

“We were about an hour into the event, when we started getting asked: are we going to do this again next year?” she said. “I am pretty sure that the event next year will even be bigger.”

Building momentum in Canada 

Friedman said the host agency continues to grow in Canada, adding advisors from across the country.

“We're bringing on 10 to 12 Canadian advisors a month,” she said.

Last year, Nexion added 59 new advisors, many of them new to the industry, who collectively generated about $1.8 million in first-year sales, according to Friedman.

“My theory is that COVID really made more consumers aware that travel advisors existed,” she said. “A lot of them who had been do-it yourselfers, who had not worked with a travel advisor, wished that they had, because they didn't have anyone to untangle everything.”

That, she said, helped drive more consumers toward advisors and raised awareness of the profession as a career path.

“It gives people an opportunity to own their own business at a relatively low cost of entry,” Friedman said.

Bookings are shifting, luxury is holding strong

“We are seeing more bookings within 90 days,” Friedman noted. “These are the people that were holding off, but as the time comes, they realize they do need to get away.”

At the same time, long-range planning remains strong. 

“Then we're also seeing really strong bookings 12 to 18 months out,” she added. “But that middle, three to 12 months out, is maybe a little slower than we've seen in the past.”

Luxury travel is also performing well.

“We're also seeing the higher end product, both land and cruise, selling really well,” Friedman said. “I think that just speaks to the fact that the affluent are more willing to part with their money right now. They have the resources to be able to travel.”

The U.S. market remains more complicated amid today's geopolitical conflict. 

“We're still seeing a slowdown in travel to the U.S. However, people cruising out of U.S. gateways is actually up,” Friedman said.

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