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New travel agent initiatives launched at CLIA UK’s 10th anniversary conference

New travel agent initiatives launched at CLIA UK’s 10th anniversary conference
Two new CLIA travel agent initiatives, designed to help boost cruise sales, were launched at the 10th anniversary CLIA Conference held in Southampton.

Andy Harmer, vp operations CLIA Europe encouraged agents to embrace the new initiatives based around detailed sector information and online training.

‘MYCLIA Clubs’ will help agents who have a specific interest in growing their sales in a specific cruise sector.  Agents will have a choice of one of five clubs on cruiseexperts.org – river, ultra-luxury, contemporary, discovery and premium – and this will provide access to a special area of the website with dedicated communications and information relating to that cruise sector.  

The CLIA ‘Training Crusade’ will set a challenge for travel agents to undertake an additional 30 minutes of study a week as research from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills shows a 50% improvement in performance for those who take on training.   

'CLIA has demonstrated that training can be fun, exciting and interactive while research shows it has a positive impact on performance, and training can take on many guises - online courses, ship visits, workshops and conferences,' said Harmer.

He continued: 'Ten years ago CLIA offered no online training. Last year 38,000 online courses were completed by member travel agents and more than 2,100 attended CLIA events. This additional knowledge will have contributed to the 67% increase in the number of British passengers taking a cruise holiday since 2005. Training Crusade will challenge agents to become more informed which will lead to increased sales.'

More than 600 delegates, including 470 travel agents, heard keynote speakers Carnival Corporation ceo Arnold Donald, Royal Caribbean Cruises president and coo, Adam Goldstein and Larry Pimentel, president and ceo of Azamara Club Cruises.