Hosting Your Own Retreat_Blog Post

TICO & Retreats

Host a Retreat – Work with Movement Travel, a TICO-Registered Travel Agent

Hosting your own retreat can be both rewarding and stressful.  In addition, navigating the Travel Industry Council of Ontario’s (TICO) strict guidelines for Special Interest Travel can be confusing. 

TICO Special Interest Travel can include, but is not limited to:

  • Yoga Retreats
  • Fitness Retreats
  • Golf Retreats
  • Wellness Retreats
  • Photography or Art Retreats
  • Walking, Hiking or Biking Holidays

If your retreat involves Travel Services – transportation or sleeping accommodation for the use of a traveler, tourist, or sightseer – and you are a resident of Ontario, you must work with a TICO-registered travel agent.  If you fail to do so, TICO will force you to cancel your retreat and take down your website.  In the worst-case scenario your business could be shut-down.

Movement Travel Retreat Booking Services

Movement Travel is a licensed travel agent affiliated with a TICO-registered host agency.  Our Retreat Booking Services are suitable if you are a specialist (yoga instructor, fitness instructor, life coach, nutritionist, naturopath, etc.) looking to host your own retreat.

By working with Movement Travel, you will ensure compliance with TICO regulations such as having a licensed travel agent book your reservations, holding customer funds in a segregated trust account, and complying with specific invoicing guidelines.  When you book your retreat through us, you remain in control of planning the retreat, while we take care of time-consuming details like: 

  • Reserving accommodations and transportation
  • Collecting payments from Guests
  • Paying Suppliers
  • Invoicing
  • Record keeping and reconciliation
  • Offering travel insurance

We also want to make sure you have carefully considered the legal and liability aspects of hosting a retreat.  As anything can happen before or during a retreat, we can refer you to legal and insurance professionals who have experience working with retreat leaders, to answer any questions you may have.

Our aim is to make the process as simple as possible so the experience of hosting your own retreat will:

  • Be less stressful
  • Leave you with more time to market your retreat, plan your itinerary, and take care of your guests

To learn more about Movement Travel’s Retreat Booking Services, please click here.

If you would like to set up a short call to discuss hosting your own retreat, please contact us here

Lisa Gordon
Co-Founder, Movement Travel