My Journey Begins Travel’s Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

Over 30 Grand Strand business leaders – along with Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Mayor-elect Mark Kruea – joined My Journey Begins Travel for our Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce Ribbon–Cutting on November 14, 2025.

On November 14, 2025, My Journey Begins Travel celebrated the recent start to its inaugural membership year with the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce with a ribbon-cutting held at the B2B Networking Groups office, where Ron facilitates the Jetsetters networking group on Fridays from 8-9am.

My Journey Begins Travel is co-owned by the husband and wife team of Ron Opher and Melissa Beers, and was established in 2019.  Ron and Melissa have been quoted and interviewed in various media publications and broadcasts and are available for additional such opportunities.

One question that they are often asked is about the value that travel agents and advisors bring to their clients.

“We have operated both in the pre-Covid and post-Covid worlds. Coming out of Covid, there was exceptional demand for travel after people had done without for a year or more in many cases. Not only that, a lot of travel companies had mothballed cruise ships and airplanes and the capacity to meet this demand was smaller, leading to higher prices and tight availability” says Ron.

Melissa adds “we have helped clients navigate this ever – changing travel environment. You might think that prices are softening with the additional capacity that the travel suppliers have been adding by building ships and ordering airplanes, combined with some economic headwinds that the nation and the world are facing. What we have noticed is that there are pockets of opportunity to travel to places where demand is softening domestically, particularly Las Vegas and throughout Florida. Even Myrtle Beach has had to do some soul-searching with some higher than normal vacancy rates. Demand for international travel remains high, though many people are opting for destinations that are less “hot” and a little more off the beaten path – both as a way of saving money and enjoying an experience that is less common.”

Both Ron and Melissa have positioned My Journey Begins Travel to be more of a concierge than a travel discounter – but regardless, they often come up with better pricing for cruises for example than what one could do directly on their own, through the group buying power they achieve by being a part of a consortium of travel agents.

Ron has served as a Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce ambassador since January, 2025, while Melissa does community service work through the Junior League of the Grand Strand.

Dragonfly Tales, My Journey Begins Travel’s blog, includes a Myrtle Beach landing page where area businesses and attractions can request to be featured at no cost to them.

My Journey Begins Travel was recognized as the 2025 Readers’ Choice award winner in both the Myrtle Beach Herald and the North Strand News.

My Journey Begins Travel knows that travelers  want a worry-free travel experience, with personalized service and attention to detail, helping maximize the VALUE and the IMPACT of their clients’ travel investment, whether by turnkey trip, such as cruises or all-inclusive vacations to custom-planned vacations ranging from weekend road trips to “trips of a lifetime!”