For Mimmo Cricchio, travel has never been simply about booking a hotel or finding a flight. It is an extension of a family history built around hospitality, service, and making people feel welcome.

Cricchio, an independent travel advisor at Fora Travel, grew up around his family’s restaurant in Baltimore’s Little Italy. His father was from Palermo, Sicily, and the family’s connection to Italian food and culture eventually evolved into another business: organizing private group trips to Italy.

Then 2020 changed everything.

Cricchio lost his job in the housing industry during the pandemic and moved from Maryland to Sarasota, Florida. There, he began working alongside his mother to rebuild the family’s travel business while maintaining relationships with longtime clients in the Mid-Atlantic.

The transition taught him an important lesson about business: trust cannot always be bought through advertising.

In Sarasota, Cricchio quickly noticed the power of personal recommendations. People asked neighbors who they trusted before hiring everyone from plumbers to local service providers. Travel was no different.

“You don’t buy the advertising, you earn it,” Cricchio explained.

That meant building relationships quickly and delivering experiences people genuinely wanted to talk about.

For years, Italy was the family’s specialty. Cricchio’s background gave him an intimate understanding of Italian culture, cuisine, and hospitality. Their small group trips were designed to avoid the impersonal feeling of traditional tours. Even with nearly 30 travelers, his goal was to create enough intimacy that guests finished a 10-day trip feeling like lifelong friends.

But Cricchio eventually reached another turning point.

He chose to step beyond the family business and build independently. The decision meant leaving the comfort of a familiar niche and expanding his work beyond Italy.

The transition is still unfolding.

Rather than viewing that uncertainty as a weakness, Cricchio sees it as an opportunity to become a more versatile advisor. Today, one client may arrive with flights and hotels already selected and simply need help completing an itinerary. Another may want an entire African safari researched and planned from the ground up.

His job is to understand the person in front of him.

That philosophy has opened the door to destinations far beyond Italy. Cricchio speaks enthusiastically about Buenos Aires, comparing its architecture and atmosphere to a European city placed in South America. He is interested in the south of France and has discussed future travel to Seoul, Tokyo, and Okinawa.

The destination changes. The importance of service does not.

Cricchio believes advisors must remember that many clients have spent years saving for a major international trip. For some, it may be their only opportunity to visit that destination.

That responsibility demands attention to detail.

Travel can also go wrong in ways clients never anticipate. Cricchio recalled a couple arriving at the airport only to discover that the husband’s passport did not meet the required validity rules. There was no textbook solution. The job became finding a way to preserve the value of their trip and move their plans forward.

Those moments have shaped his view of entrepreneurship.

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” he said.

The answer is not having a perfect plan for every possible problem. It is remaining flexible enough to respond when something unexpected happens.

That resilience is deeply connected to Cricchio’s family history.

His father arrived in the United States from Sicily in 1957 after an older brother purchased him a plane ticket. Trained as a ship engineer, he worked as a merchant marine and accepted dangerous assignments aboard vessels traveling into wartime areas. He saved his earnings and eventually opened a restaurant.

That restaurant helped create the foundation for the businesses Cricchio would later inherit, rebuild, and reshape.

For Cricchio, the story remains a reminder to keep moving when business becomes difficult.

“Don’t give up. Keep going. Press. Be persistent.”

His definition of success has changed as well. As a child bussing tables in the family restaurant, success might have meant earning enough money for a new pair of soccer cleats. Today, he thinks about building something that supports the people around him and creates a larger impact.

Travel fits naturally into that vision because Cricchio believes it can become much more than a vacation.

Leaving familiar surroundings forces people to give up a little predictability. It introduces new cultures, languages, and perspectives. When travelers remain open to those experiences, Cricchio believes a trip can change how they see both themselves and other people.

That is ultimately what he is building around now: not simply destinations, but experiences worth remembering.

And when the entrepreneurial journey becomes difficult, Cricchio returns to the same question he encourages other founders to ask.

Why did you start in the first place?

For him, remembering the answer is often enough to keep going.

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