CLEVELAND — After months of quarantine and being cooped up with COVID restrictions, business is now booming for a Northeast Ohio travel agency. 

Jasmien Lewis lived in the area her whole life.

“I went to school in Cleveland," she said. "I taught in Cleveland city schools. So you know I have a soft spot in my heart for Cleveland.”

But, she was also born with the travel bug. 

“My mom would say when I was little, I would come home and I would say, ‘Oh, we read about something in a history book and I want to go there,’” Lewis said with a laugh. 

Now as an adult, she took her passion for exploring and started her own travel agency, Travel Life Services. 

“In order to be more productive in work and in life, you have to take vacations,” Lewis said. “You have to take a break.”

She helps clients like new mom Kayra Hoo plan their next vacation.

“I want to create as many memories as possible,” Hoo said. “Especially stuff that she (her daughter Zuri) can look back on.”

And right now, Hoo’s ready to get away from it all. 

“We are excited cause we couldn’t go anywhere last year,” she said. 

Lewis said the pandemic pushed dozens of new customers each month to contact Travel Life Services.

“It’s getting very hectic right now,” she said.

Ninety percent of those new customers say they’ve never used a travel agency before. 

At first, when coronavirus restrictions started being lifted, she said there was a big boom in domestic travel. 

“But, as soon as the vaccine went out to a mass number of people, everyone was back to Mexico, Aruba, the Caribbean, anywhere,” Lewis said. 

She customizes trips for travelers and books vacations around the world at no extra cost to the customers for her services, eliminating extra fees often tacked on by online travel sites. 

“We get paid from our suppliers, and so our travel agency works with our preferred providers to ensure that you have the best experience possible,” Lewis said. “And in return for our clients visiting their destination, they pay us.”

The arrangement provides a one-stop-shop for convenience and peace of mind.

“It’s not their dream with a twist, it’s their dream,” she said. “And that excites me because I love to travel, and it’s my dream, too.”