Retailers are strongly advocating for educationals for agents after a long pause during the pandemic. But supplier involvement is absolutely crucial.

Flight Centre Travel Group GM Supply, Pricing and Marketing, Sue Garrett, said: “One of the major roadblocks in getting our experts out experiencing our own and our partners’ products firsthand, is the expense of PCR testing. We know this amounts to a significant spend.”

Garrett said Flight Centre wanted this type of COVID-19 test to be abolished unless there was any scientific evidence to justify such a requirement. “Once this is lifted, we will see a significant increase in uptake of educational offers.” She said educationals were important as they allowed consultants to experience a vast array of product that was booked by customers.

“Our global company vision is to “open the world for those who want to see”, which encompasses many aspects. One of those is providing the best opportunity for our staff to get out there doing what they love… travelling and seeing the world, allowing our customers to witness our confidence in travel in the new world.”

Club Travel MD, Gary Mulder, said Club Travel was also eager to see its members travelling again. “We really are coming out of a period of incredible uncertainty around travel and are still waiting for a bit more certainty before we actively launch educationals again. Having said that, it is on the radar and we are engaging with our suppliers about getting these going again.”

Mulder also emphasised the great value of first-hand travel experiences and product knowledge. “We have always been and remain in favour of educationals, and travel people experiencing products that they sell.

“In this world of information at the click of a button, discerning travellers would expect their consultants to know more than them, or why use them? The best way to gain such knowledge is through experience.”

Operators on board

Thompsons Holidays’ ‘GM: Sales Development, Angela Wood, is the brand’s custodian of online training and agent education, including educationals, familiarisations and Thompson’s focused and comprehensive ‘Universities’ product training.

Thompsons currently hosts two online Zoom training sessions a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11h00) and Wood said attendance by agents had been excellent.

Since the start of lockdown, Thompsons has hosted more than 200 online virtual training sessions, which are also recorded. It hosted an educational trip to Mauritius in November 2021 and Wood said more South African trips were being planned.

Although Thompsons does its best to subsidise the trips as much as it can with the assistance of partners, Wood said this was becoming more of a challenge due to escalating airline taxes and budget cuts by hotels and other suppliers.

“Our trade universities and educationals are critically important to bring the travel trade closer to the products they sell. Past successes have highlighted that an up-close-and-personal experience is the best way for agents to learn about destinations and their offerings. The trips are very experiential, making them exciting to attend.

“There is a cost to the agent, which is a fraction of the actual cost. The criteria for invitations are very much based on loyal support, especially support of the destination that is being visited. We also encourage all our supporting agents to get vaccinated in order to travel on our educational trips.”

World Leisure Holidays has developed a rewards incentive to help agents experience its resorts, and has educationals scheduled to depart from March.

Head of Sales, Brenda Mitchell, said hotels were open to site visits and willing to show agents around, something that can be arranged if consultants are travelling independently.

How do agents make it on to a hosted WLH educational?  Mitchell explained: “The sales team has a list of travel agents they would like to invite. These are current supporters of WLH or potential supporters, especially those who have not visited our properties. She said a personalised invitation was sent to the agents. “The hotels we promote are very eager to have educational groups visit their properties.”

Beachcomber Tours Sales & Marketing Director, Joanne Visagie, said the operator was also looking at running educationals again. Beachcomber Tours had always recognised the value of educational travel and, pre-COVID, regularly hosted fams at its Mauritius resorts, said Visagie.  

“As soon as we have information from the airlines we will start educationals again. We believe in them and know that first-hand experience is the ultimate tool in a travel agent’s sales skills set, so we are keen to get agents to live the Beachcomber Experience so they can share it personally with their clients. We have always hosted them successfully, and look forward to doing this again in the future.”

A Beachcomber itinerary typically gave enough time for agents to enjoy and discover the resorts and their surroundings, Visagie said. “We hand-pick agents, invest in these trips ourselves, put together a good itinerary that includes time at the resorts with inspections, lovely meals and time to enjoy the resort facilities, plus an excursion or two to discover more about the island. We also receive participants’ feedback reports and monitor their sales post educationals. Beachcomber Tours South Africa has a travel agent rate for agents to make use of for their own holiday, and we endeavour to offer the best rate we can to our good supporters.”