Travel Village rolls out training scheme to help agents boost river sales
The Travel Village Group has launched a new training programme to help agents capitalise on the UK river cruise market
The programme is part of a wider series of training initiatives aimed at the group’s business owners who are either new to a niche sector or looking to bolster their existing skills.
The first in the collection is the River Cruise Academy, which will offer training, support, fam trips and marketing for agents to help them increase earning potential and encourage new and existing clients to experience river holidays.
The academy is the brainchild of business development manager Amanda Taylor and group commercial manager Richard Cross, who came up with the idea whilst attending the CLIA Riverview Conference in Amsterdam earlier this year.
“[River cruise] is lucrative, a great alternative to coach touring, but above all still relatively new to the UK market and therefore not a product that is widely understood,” said Taylor.
The academy will run for six months from September 2024 to May 2025 and feature a variety of face-to-face and virtual meetings for agents, touching on river product, brands, itineraries and systems, plus an opportunity to experience two fam trips.
Delegates will also host a local event with the support of TVG and a river cruise operator. The delegates will graduate in March 2025 at the CLIA Riverview Conference.
‘Training opportunity perfectly suited to agents,’ says Travel Village owners
The programme, which has been backed by AmaWaterways, APT & Travelmarvel, Emerald and Scenic Cruises and Uniworld, will commence with a launch day in September.
Phil and Paula Nuttall, owners of TVG, said: “Amanda and Richard have identified an opportunity that is perfectly suited to our business owners, and when they presented it to us both in Amsterdam, we knew it was a winning formula.
“Everyone is invested emotionally and financially including our tour operator partners and that is a winning recipe to ensure we remain focused on the return on investment.”
