Seminars at Sea conducted by Cruise and Travel University would be the best and most serious of the

Continuous training is a must for every home-based travel agent desiring to be successful in the travel industry. To believe otherwise is just plain ridiculous. Training is mandatory, whether you are just starting out as a travel agent, working from home or you are a 30 year veteran working in a professional office. Today s travel professional is expected san antonio texas luxury hotels to know something about the kind of travel they are attempting san antonio texas luxury hotels to sell to their clients. The more you know, the better chance you have of booking and maintaining that client. san antonio texas luxury hotels The face of the travel agent is rapidly changing. Are you going to have what it takes and the knowledge to be successful?
Training and education are plentiful these days. It runs the gamut from learning about an individual vendor or supplier to the more sophisticated courses offered by such 3rd parties as Sharon Emerson, Nancy Kist and Kelly Monaghan. The important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as the travel agent with all the answers. That is why, in today s world, you must specialize. Whatever your specialty, you will never be successful until you know every aspect of that niche and continue to keep abreast by taking courses as they become available.
Most new or experienced travel agents don t realize the benefits of participating in or taking advantage of many of the industry training, FAMS or virtual/live conferences and trade shows. While your online training is usually more economical you are not going to get the interaction of a live event. You can find much of it for free while others will ask for a nominal fee or larger amount if it s a full course of subjects.
The virtual online conferences and trade shows, for the most part, have solved the financial problem of attending a national type conference. The conferences are free and you can attend san antonio texas luxury hotels the activities at your own leisure as the show is recorded. The virtual shows are here to stay and I m sure they will get even better as the technology improves. The only sad part is the fact that the Shrimp Lady (www.theshrimplady.com) has been shut out until the shows are able to produce smells from the show itself, and in this case, the smell of freshly steamed shrimp.
The obvious first choice is CLIA, www.cruising.org. CLIA has many of the online courses, regional and national seminars, Seminars at Sea, videos, printed matter and just about everything you need in cruise training. CLIA also offers the various designations such as ACC, MCC and ECC which are a must to obtain if you want to specialize in cruises. I would obtain their Photo ID card for easier acceptance to the FAMs or Seminars at Sea.
Seminars at Sea conducted by Cruise and Travel University would be the best and most serious of the many organizations, outside CLIA, that do provide cruise training as well as an all around training program. What is unique about the University of Travel (www.cruiseandtraveluniversity.com) is they also have well known industry instructors as well as other training topics other than just cruises. All of their training programs have been developed with the assistance of industry leading trainer Dr. Marc Mancini. The University of Travel also offers an exclusive curriculum that guarantees there will be an instructor and classes on every Seminar at Sea no matter how many agents attend. I don t believe anyone else provides this guarantee.
I would recommend Platinum Seminars located at www.platinumseminars.com for the upscale seller of cruises. They offer seminars on such ships as Regent, Seaborne Crystal and Oceania as well as the usual RCL and NCL style ships.
Don t just go on any Seminar at Sea sponsored by an organization as sometimes the training is just not good and sometimes even non-existent. Those who try and sell many of these seminars are really just in the business of selling reduced price cruises san antonio texas luxury hotels to travel agents. It pays to check out who is presenting your seminar,who may be the instructor and what is the subject matter.
All of the major resorts such as Disney, Universal, Sandals, SuperClubs, ClubMed, etc have excellent training courses about their products. Disney of course, is the most comprehensive. Both Marriott and Starwood san antonio texas luxury hotels Pro offer agents excellent training along with reward programs.
The Travel Institute is the guru of land destination training. They, like CLIA, have the most extensive san antonio texas luxury hotels collection of training tools, including many niche or specialty courses available in one place. Contact them at www.thetravelinstitute.org. They also have their designations such as the CTA and CTC, a must for the professional travel agent.
Yes, all mainstream suppliers have product training courses and webinars available either directly or through your favorite organization and the travel media online websites. You can t possibly take all these courses. I would recommend you take those that apply to your own niche.
Media publications, destination tourist boards and travel agent organizations also offer excellent product and destination courses and they are all generally free. Keep in mind that you don t need to join any travel agent organization to receive training, education and FAMs. Most of it is all free or at nominal prices.
8) Subscribe to online and printed publications such as Agent@Home, Vacation@Home, Travel Weekly , Travel Pulse, Travel Agent, Recommend, san antonio texas luxury hotels JaxFax and TRO. It s important san antonio texas luxury hotels you also keep up with industry news.
Training is one of the best way to be an professional and benefits of it is really high i don t why some of them don t know about it,as an traveler i travel san antonio texas luxury hotels a lot places including Finland country,in i am going to be in a travel agencies i will refer it as a good place and without training well i can say i cannot do it.