KHM Travel Group has had an incredible year of celebrating our travel agents. From a milestone anniversary to record-shattering commission payouts…and more memorable trips together than we can count. It’s been a busy year of booking travel. Let’s look back on the last 12 months as we gear up for an exciting 2026.

January – March 

We started the year living out one part of our company’s mission: educating travel agents. Our Boot Camp 2.0 event in January kicked off a year of learning, growing, and developing new skills. Boot Camp 2.0 is designed for more experienced agents looking to increase their understanding of their personal business. It includes interactive sessions on business planning, myTravelCRM™, finances, and marketing strategies. These aren’t just presentations, but instead attendees work together on real-time exercises with the team and fellow agents.

The beginning of March is always a special time for us, but this year was extra meaningful as we celebrated our 20th anniversary. A milestone like that deserves an equally memorable event, which was our Crystal Conference at the Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace! A week filled with education, laughter, entertainment, and networking made this gathering with our 500+ attendees truly special. You can read more about this Travel Weekly Magellan Award-winning event here.

April – June

Spring brought fresh energy and high earnings as we welcomed agents to our first event held in our newly expanded event space in our Corporate Office. This Boot Camp 1.0 class thoroughly enjoyed diving into all the travel agent essentials, while getting to connect with our staff in the office.

In May, we celebrated National Travel & Tourism Week with fun giveaways and by spotlighting our travel agents each week for special “Travel Agent Tuesdays.” This agent recognition continues – follow us on social media to meet some of our agents! 

We closed out spring with a 26% increase from quarter one for new agents earning their first commission checks. On June 18th, our highest commission payout in one week was $1.5 million. The following week, the commissions kept rolling in for our agents with a record high of 1,200 agents receiving a weekly commission payment!

July – September

For our annual Destination Success event, we developed something new and it turned out to be a hit. The new “chart your own course” format allowed agents to choose the specific sessions they wanted to sign up for. Attendees learned from our supplier partners, team members, and even their fellow agents through peer-led travel and business-focused presentations.

In early fall, we zeroed in on how we can invest in the efficiency of our host agency operations. Earlier in the year, we implemented a bi-weekly automation for unclaimed commission notifications that has helped link over 10,000 bookings. It led to an increase of 1,800 additional bookings year-over-year – that means more commission in our agents’ pockets. We also started a new automation to help get booking confirmations into the hands of our agents faster. 

September included more staff professional development with exciting, new promotions for our Directors in Finance & Technology (Hannah Butler), Marketing (Lisa Leone), Operations (Bri Greathouse), and Agent Support (Kathy Gorfido). Our focus is always supporting agents, and the growth of our team helps us continue to enhance our customer service and program benefits.

October – December

Growth took on a whole new meaning in October when we acquired Levarté Travel. Levarté Travel founder Lori Speers joined KHM Travel Group as Vice President of Business Development, bringing along her team and a spirited passion for helping travel advisors take their businesses to new levels. We didn’t just add people to our team in October; we also added more education! New online courses were launched that incorporate interactive video learning on topics like booking air, river cruising, travel protection, and more.

During the year, we also established new partnerships with the Family Travel Association (FTA) and Wellness Tourism Association (WTA) that brought our agents exclusive discounts and benefits. We pride ourselves in joining forces with strong organizations in the industry that can offer our agents continued education and certifications.

No year in review for KHM Travel Group would be complete without sharing some of the amazing places we’ve been. Not including all the cities across the U.S. where we hosted events, we traveled to Mexico, Punta Cana, Jamaica, France, Vienna, New Zealand, Croatia, Colombia, Amsterdam, Italy, and more cruise ports than we can count! It’s all with the goal of connecting our agents to each other and the world. 

We look forward to seeing our community grow in the year ahead!

You Belong with an Award-Winning Host Agency!

We’d love for you to be part of our 2026 story.

Watch this video with our President and CEO Rick Zimmerman about the heart behind our host agency — why we do what we do, and why so many agents choose to call us their professional home.

Learn more about becoming a travel agent with KHM Travel Group by visiting KHMTravel.com or calling our team at 888-611-1220.