Seeing as that a common question that most people who are brand new to the MLM industry have when evaluating a potential company is “Is this a scam?”, so I wanted to take a couple of hours to research a relative newcomer in the notorious multi-level marketing travel industry that has a lot of people wondering if it’s a good opportunity or not. The company I reviewed is World Ventures, so here’s what I found which I hope will help you in determining for yourself, “Is World Ventures a legitimate buiness opportunity or a scam?”.

Too bad you paid for your whole seat, because you’re only going to need the edge for this one…

Here are the most crucial things to review with any network marketing company you’re thinking about joining:

1. Does the company offer a real service and/or product?

2. Does the service or product provide real value to people even if they’re not involved with the company as a representative? Simply, would people still buy it even if they did not earn a commission (We’ll go over the World Ventures LTC and Dream Trips programs in-depth soon)?

This is the most critical part of any serious evaluation, and World Ventures is no exception because if the service or product doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, than every other aspect of a network marketing like World Ventures doesn’t matter.

Would you agree?

World Ventures travel products: Do they provide real value?

The Dream Trips product currently sells for a $199.95 fee up-front and $24.99 per month after that. The concept behind this product is the same as Costco or Sam’s Club. They buy in bulk and their customer’s get access to discounted vacation packages in exchange for their monthly membership fee. According to the World Ventures website, there are approximately 70 different trips for their members to choose from.

Are the travel packages worth it or are they a scam?

It would be very time-consuming to compare all of the vacation packages that are typically being offered by World Ventures to properly determine the value, but the few prices I audited were actually pretty impressive when I compared them to some of the top online travel booking sites.

One vacation I compared was to Cabo San Lucas at the Riu Palace (yes, please!). For two adults, this vacation cost about $760 with World Ventures via the Dream Trips product and Travelocity was almost $200 more expensive at about $950.

Another comparison I ran was for a Jamaican vacation at the Grand Lido Braco resort. This trip for two adults was priced at about $890 through the Dream Trips product with World Ventures and Travelocity came in around $1050. So in these two examples at least, the savings were pretty substantial.

In the spirit of comparing “apples-to-apples”, there were some more extravagant vacations listed that couldn’t be easily compared due to the fact that they included extras that couldn’t be purchased through some of the major travel sites, or they didn’t show the price unless you were a World Ventures customer.

Based on the numbers so far, it sounds like most World Ventures customers would recoup their Dream Trips membership cost with the money they’d save by booking their first vacation. Please keep in mind that this article isn’t an exhaustive Dateline NBC-type investigation since I only reviewed 2 of the almost 70 Dream Trips to a major travel booking site, but based on the numbers so far, I think it’s fair to say that people who take at least one good vacation per year would get a lot value out of their World Ventures membership.

The “World Ventures Scam” is looking unfounded so far…

World Ventures Leisure Travel Consultant Package (LTC)

The World Ventures LTC package also sells for an up-front fee of $199.95 and $24.99 per after that. The best way to think about it would be as an online travel business-in-a-box. The start-up fee includes your own online retail travel website, web-based travel learning courses along with an exam, and opportunities for higher-level travel industry training. Cutting edge marketing training excluded, from what I can tell they give their LTC’s many of the tools they’ll need to build a thriving online business in the travel industry.

I was also extremely impressed by the Rovia search engine because, after using it for a while and seeing how it searches all the other major sites, I could see how World Ventures’ claims of not needing to search multiple sites to get the best deal could be very true.

Speaking of getting the best price, they also have a “Match or Beat” price guarantee for online vacation bookings against Priceline, Travelocity, Expedia, and Orbitz which could be a very positive marketing tool for someone who is working to build a network marketing with World Ventures.

Common claim of why World Ventures is a “scam”: World Ventures Leisure Travel Consultant program is essentially a “travel agent card mill”?

Over the past 10 years or so, there have been a few MLM companies that have tried to take advantage of the undeniable fact that a rapidly growing amount of travel is booked through the internet. Unfortunately for their customers, these companies didn’t really provide much real value and left them with “a bone to pick” with the entire network marketing travel industry.

What these companies were doing was they were selling a cheap plastic card to their customers that allowed people to get discounts as if they were licensed travel agents when they technically weren’t. This is where the term “card mills” came from.

It’s kind of like those B.S. scam “courses” that are conducted in international waters where a school will issue you a college degree in an afternoon for a fee. Super, you got a piece of paper that says you’re a qualified engineer in Kazakhstan. Very nice!

I’m happy to say that I didn’t see anything on their website or in their marketing materials which would show that they’ve gone this route with their Leisure Travel Consultant program. Actually, World Ventures went a step further and made it so that LTC’s can’t get this card until they’ve booked a standard number of travel sales along with completing additional training similar to what offline agents must do.

It’s important to keep in mind that the company’s product is a discount based on their buying in bulk and not by giving everyone travel agent discount cards like some less-than-reputable network marketing travel companies have done in the past.

I hope this has helped provide some insight into World Ventures as a company and will help you figure out for yourself if it’s a scam or not.

(Disclaimer: I am NOT affiliate d with World Ventures in an way and am providing unbiased information along with my opinion based on 10 years in the MLM industry.)