Gary E. Smith, MBA, ECCS, CB, HoF

Owner and CEO

Founder: Leisure Travel Benefits Specialist & C.E.O

Gary fell in love with cruising at 14 when he went on his first Caribbean cruise. At 17 he started his first business and eventually moved into the event planning business more than 25 years ago. He founded and grew a convention management firm from scratch to handling over 70,000 attendees annually, including a city-wide convention of over 20,000 each year. As an off-shoot of that work, Gary started doing events on cruise ships. 

Gary is one of the few travel agents with both a meeting planner background and an incredible resume of leisure travel experiences and sales. This varied experience makes him uniquely capable of understanding the needs and desires of his clients.

Prior to re-branding as TravelPerks, Gary grew his leisure travel business to the largest of over 920 Dream Vacations franchises (now almost 1200) in the United States. Along the way, he has won virtually every award possible - including being named one of the top 25 travel agents in America for 2013.

Gary loves cruising and travel of all types, and with 13 river cruises already completed and numbers 14 and 15 already booked, he is a wealth of information on this hot industry segment.

While running TravelPerks Dream Vacations keeps him plenty busy, he also finds time to travel with his wonderful wife Theresa. In addition, he is a college professor teaching small business management and mentoring over 100 small businesses in his community.

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Read All Reviews

From Our Clients...

Last-minute Caribbean Christmas Cruise

"We spontaneously decided our family wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise for the Christmas holidays, and with little/no time, turned to TravelPerks Dream Vacations to help select, book and make it happen. We have cruised two times before, with TravelPerks, both times, have been exceptional experiences and this was no different. Matt Kim, my Travel Advisor, was attentive, quickly understood what I was looking for, my parameters, cruise type, our preferences, likes/dislikes and we were able to find and secure the right cruise for us (7 day Norweggian cruise). He gave great suggestions in regard to rooms, room location, meals, excursions, add-on packages and also where we could save money. Leading up to cruise day, we had many questions that came up and Matt answered them all, quickly and expertly. Matt - thank you for making this a wonderful and unforgetable experience for our family!"

– Grace T. - January 2023

Exceptional support through delayed vacation due to COVID

"Theresa was wonderful. We had been planning this Alaskan cruise since 2019 and then COVID hit and then we were still unsure about 2021 so we waited another year. Theresa took care of everything for us, checking in with us every couple of weeks and making sure that we were getting our checklist taken care of. Thank you, Theresa and TravelPerks Dream Vacations, we had a great time and cannot wait for our next cruise."

– Donna H. - Alaska Cruise, 2022

Worry Free!

"You folks are incredible and your services outstanding! No one does it better."

– Robert C. - Celebrity Cruise, March 2023

Spectacular Shore Excursions

"Everything worked out even better than planned. On all three shore excursions we met people in the bus who said they appreciated those excursions and they were far better than the ones offered by the ship. We, too, were impressed with the quality of the excursions and tour guides. The cruise was spectacular and all the arrangements made in advance were spectacular."
– Jayne W. - Norwegian Cruise Line

Ready to go again!

"Words can not explain the marvelous time we had on our very first cruise. Theresa is the best travel agent!! There was not a time when I called with questions that my questions went unanswered. Great customer service, very caring travel agents, always there to help, great prices, and last but not least, I'm ready to go again!!!! If anybody ever needs a travel agent this company will be the only one that I would recommend."

– Shanda - Essex, MD

Easy and Stress Free!

"I used TravelPerks to book a family vacation and had the pleasure of working with Theresa. She is very knowledgeable and goes out of her way to get you the best deals. I am a customer with lots of questions and she was extremely patient with me and was always prompt answering all my emails. I definitely recommend using TravelPerks for all your vacation needs and their bonus deals are a plus. Thanks Theresa for making vacation planning easy and stress free!"

– Linda - Sacramento, CA