“You’re only going to sell Disney? You’re out of your mind.” When Lisa Federico shared her plan to launch a Disney-focused agency in 1999, that was just one of the skeptical reactions.
Today that agency, Academy Travel, is No. 71 on Travel Weekly’s Power List. Home to an in-house sales team and more than 2,000 independent contractors, Academy recorded $112 million in 2023 sales, a number Federico said she expects to eclipse this year.
The Manahawkin, N.J.-based agency celebrated its 25th anniversary during its conference at the Contemporary Resort in Disney World in October. The event featured a golf outing, presentations, a trade show, a gala event and awards. Jodi Benson, the voice of the Little Mermaid in the 1989 Disney animated film as well as its sequels, performed with her daughter, actor Delaney Benson.
Disney is a common specialty among agencies today, but 25 years ago that wasn’t the case. Even Federico didn’t plan to sell the full suite of Disney products — she had only wanted to sell the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.
Federico’s history in the travel industry goes back further than Academy Travel. She originally was an accountant, but a routine surgery that went awry in the early 1990s prevented her from going back to work. With two small children to care for, she started looking for work she could do from home and landed on becoming a travel agent.
She went to a local brick-and-mortar agency and asked for Disney brochures, which she would pass out wherever she took her children: Gymboree, karate classes, kindergarten. Her husband at the time, a web designer, built her a website. She started selling trips and found a host agency.
“People knew me as the Disney specialist,” she said. “I had a couple of people say, ‘Can I help you?’ ‘Can I work for you?’ ‘How can I do this?’ ‘How can I be a travel agent?'”
So in 1999, she incorporated Academy — named after the street she lived on, Academy Lane — and started training more and more advisors.
“I just wanted to take [my kids] to Disney World as much as possible,” Federico said. “There were a bunch of moms that wanted the same thing.”
While Federico was adamant she only wanted to sell Disney World, she eventually expanded, and today Academy is a full-service agency. Over the years, she’s seen the industry evolve from physical airline tickets with carbon-paper inserts to online booking and beyond. Disney, at the core of Academy’s history, has also evolved, from its theme parks to Disney Cruise Line and Adventures by Disney.
“So many travel agents are specializing in Disney Destinations and Universal now, with all of the products that they have,” Federico said. “I think that Disney and Universal have made that easier with their inside sales teams, their outside sales teams, their trainings, their technology, and all of that. I think we’ve all grown up together.”
Fees? Forget it.
Federico has remained adamant about not charging fees to her advisors, either monthly or startup. As a result, many have been with the agency for more than 20 years. (Academy doesn’t charge fees to its clients, either.)
In addition to Academy, Federico runs media company Kingdom Insider, which for the past decade has provided news and resources about Disney. Designed to provide useful content for Academy advisors, it’s open to everyone, including consumers and non-Academy agents. While she does advertise Academy as a home for advisors on Kingdom Insider, she doesn’t solicit agents or their clients.
Federico has now turned her attention to a book she is writing in which she shares her life story and how she aimed to build a strong and ethical company.
But she said her biggest focus remains on her advisors.
“Support, support, support — I can’t say it enough,” Federico said.
Indeed, all 2,000 of her advisors have her cellphone number. None of them overuse it, she said.
“We all work as a team,” Federico said. “And it was the biggest accolade we got at the 25th anniversary: The agents said that they just love the team, and they love that they get support. They can get someone at any time of day.”
