Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has launched three new resources: “CLIA Vision,” a one-stop web link to CLIA social media sites, and a new online industry calendar providing quick access to a broad range of industry events, including those featuring CLIA training opportunities.
“Since its founding 35 years ago, one of CLIA’s top priorities has been to help travel agents become more professional and do their work more efficiently and profitably,” said Bob Sharak, CLIA’s executive vice president. “CLIA has so many programs available to agents, sometimes the biggest challenge is making sure that our members know and understand all that CLIA has to offer. These new resources use web and social media tools to enable our member agents to learn more about CLIA and CLIA services, engage with colleagues and prospective customers and have instant access to information about events they may want to participate in.”
Travel agents can access “CLIA Vision” by visiting the Travel Agent Center of the CLIA website. CLIA member agents, and those agents interested in CLIA membership and programs, are welcomed by a rotating short one- to three-minute video featuring Sharak, Jim Smith, CLIA’s director of marketing, Gaye Stewart-Loudis, director of membership and CLIA’s Director of Training, Tom Cogan.
These initial 28 videos are also cataloged within a “CLIA Vision” content area of the CLIA website, which add up to almost 44 minutes and provide information about a wide variety of topics, including a cruise industry overview, CLIA training and Certification, membership benefits, cruise3sixty, the World’s Largest Cruise Night promotion, sales and marketing resources and more. Visitors to the site are able to access the videos of their choice by clicking on a menu of category choices.
The CLIA Travel Agent Center “dashboard” on the travel agent welcome page also provides agents with one-stop access to CLIA’s Facebook Fan Page and YouTube content in addition to CLIA Vision simply by clicking on “Social Media” in the menu of options. This way agents can quickly log on to CLIA’s Facebook and YouTube pages without having to access these sites individually.
Similarly, agents can click on a new “Industry Events Calendar” on the Travel Agent Center page to access the CLIA Industry Calendar. This new one-stop planning resource provides all necessary information about scheduled CLIA training programs and other events as well as other industry events where CLIA training is featured. Organizations interested in being listed and which offer CLIA training as part of their event should submit their entry information to CLIA at www.cruising.org/contact-clia.