 |
| Barbados Tourism Authority members from left, Ignatius Marshall, business development manager; Andrea Franklin, senior business development manager; Eusi Skeete, business development manager and Peter Mayers, business development manager |
NEW YORK CITY – Travel Agent was on hand Friday at the New York Times Travel Show for the official re-launching of the Barbados Tourism Authority’s popular Elite Club Specialist/Rewards program.
We chatted with Eusi Skeete, business development manager for the Barbados Tourism Authority, and learned a little more about what makes the program, first launched in 2009, something agents should look into.
The program, offered through Travel Agent University and Luxury Travel University, aims to educate agents about Barbados while also rewarding them and their clients. Agents not only receive an array of incentives for graduating the course, but they also receive incentives for every booking. In addition to the benefits available to agents, their clients will also receive VIP on-island benefits as well.
“We wanted to offer the incentives to the client too, so we can basically say to them, ‘You are getting this simply because of who you’re agent is,’” says Skeete. “It really gives value to the agent. It shows the client how important their agent is. We know how important agents are to our destination and we want to reward them for their work.”
The program had a soft re-launch in December and has had roughly 500 members join since then. Skeete says he expects that number to double and is looking to keep that figure stable.
“I’d say about a 1,000 or so members is exactly what we are looking for,” he told us. “Of course the more members we get, the better, but we also believe in quality or quantity. I would love to have 1,000 or so agents who are all experts in Barbados.”
The program is free to join and can be accessed by visiting www.barbadoseliteclub.com.
Visit www.visitbarbados.org.