The U.S. Federal Government did not shut down this week, passing a last-minute bill to fund operations for another 45 days. While a long-term agreement can be met it’s important to note that the new deadline for such is now November 17.
Meanwhile, a variety of organizations debuted new travel advisor training courses, tools and beyond.
The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) launched an expansion of its Travel Advisor Roadmap Course, with four new career pathway training modules intended to introduce those new to the industry to the available career opportunities. Courses include “Corporate Travel Advisor: Roadmap to Becoming a Travel Advisor,” “Independent Contractor: Working with a Host Agency,” “On the Payroll: Working Directly for a Travel Agency” and “Independent Travel Agency: Building Your Business.”
Bedsonline, separately, debuted a new web portal that provides tailored recommendations to travel advisors that best suit their customer’s needs. Powered by artificial intelligence, Insights guides travel advisors to offer a personalized experience based on targeted data collected through real-time customer interactions while helping them to grow their business by showing destinations, hotels and experiences booked in their local market and adapted to the individual needs of the end customer.
In addition, CCRA Travel Commerce Network officially launched a suite of new and enhanced training and development programs for its travel agency accreditation membership, TRUE. These initiatives are designed to propel the success and growth of TRUE member travel agencies and advisors. Advisors can make use of an “Office Hours” series, one-on-one consultations, monthly webinars, live events and more.
Looking to sell more river cruises? AmaWaterways this week launched Course 4 of its AmaAcademy, an interactive online education platform designed to help travel advisors grow their business with the luxury river cruise line. The newest course entitled “The Rhine, Main, and Moselle Rivers with AmaWaterways” highlights a selection of the line’s popular European itineraries and complements the Course 2 learning module, which focuses on Danube itineraries.
Lastly, the Bermuda Tourism Authority unveiled new group travel resources as a feature of its “Find the Time You Lost” campaign. The content hub is designed to give inspiration for travelers looking to celebrate a wedding, bachelorette party, babymoon, birthday or long-overdue family reunion.
New Destination Marketing
This week, the Singapore Tourism Board unveiled “Made in Singapore,” its latest global campaign to woo travelers. With internal research finding that over 60 percent of people are looking for more purposeful travel and close to 80 percent of those planning for purposeful travel are looking for destinations that inspire them, the “Made in Singapore” campaign aims to showcase the country’s key attributes: An inspiring destination that is not only vibrant and cosmopolitan, but also rooted in multicultural heritage.
Additionally, the Israel Ministry of Tourism has launched its own campaign: "Anywhere.” The digital campaign resulted from research gathered from Google, which reported a significant increase in flight searches not necessarily tied to a specific destination. The Ministry of Tourism’s new campaign and its messaging—"Israel can take you anywhere”—encourages travelers to explore everything Israel has to offer, availing themselves to new experiences, cultures and discoveries.
Tip of the Week
If your clients are not already enrolled in TSA PreCheck/Global Entry, make sure they sign up. According to a new U.S. Travel Association survey from Ipsos, air travelers enrolled in either program are significantly more likely than those who aren’t to rate their overall travel experience as good or excellent. Those who rated their most recent air travel experience as excellent or good are also more likely than the national average to have upcoming travel plans in the next six months.
A hassle-free air travel experience is one of the most likely indicators that a person will travel again soon. Doing what you can to make that experience as seamless as possible will benefit your clients and your bottom line.
An Industry Icon’s New Role
What does it feel like to spend more than 40 years in a career you absolutely love? We got the inside story on exactly that from Ignacio Maza, who is departing his full-time role as Signature Travel Network’s EVP of luxury business development at the end of the year. Maza, who has been at Signature for two decades, is launching a consulting business and will be an advisor to Signature and other organizations starting in 2024.
For Luxury Travel Advisor’s October cover story, we caught up with Maza, who reflected on his career thus far. His observations were filled with gratitude and thoughtfulness as he touched upon the evolution of luxury travel and what the future looks like for travel advisors.
A Moment of Your Time
Travel Agent has launched the second iteration of its quarterly "Travel Trends & Advisor Insight Survey." We will use these quarterly surveys to learn more about the current state of the travel industry, as well as your business. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey; following its conclusion, we will publish the findings here, so you will gain insight into the larger travel ecosystem and your colleague's businesses.
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