Three Steps To Developing A Travel Agent Training Program

The travel agency industry has rebounded, more consumers are booking vacations through agents, and many owners are hiring again. After a long new-hire drought, many travel agencies are struggling with how to onboard new agents with the proper training.

“Training can be overwhelming and potentially time consuming,” said Guida Botelho, CTA, director of training at the Travel Institute. “You’re busy running your agency, and you’re trying to figure out, ‘How do I show this person in two weeks what I’ve learned in 25 years?’ ”

But training doesn’t have to be difficult, Botelho said. It’s like planning an itinerary for customers: “You need to know your destination, and plan how you’re going to get there.”

To overcome the sometimes daunting appearance of creating a training program, Botelho recommends agency owners break their plan down into easy steps, by asking themselves the following questions:

Decide what to cover
For someone who is brand new, you have to start with the basics. Think about your first day in the industry. You needed to know the simplest things: What’s a distribution system? What’s a PNR? What’s a hub-and-spoke system?”

Botelho says cover the fundamentals, but don’t get too technical in the first week.

For more seasoned professionals, skip the basics and go into the procedures, policies, and product knowledge specific to your agency.

Decide how much time are you going to spend on it
The best approach is to spread out learning. While the tendency is to try to cram everything into the first three weeks, Botelho recommends “more structure over 3-6 months, and if you can, extend that out to a 9-12 month itinerary.”

For example, if you train new hires on a booking tool for 45 minutes, they’re going to need several days to practice on their own to master that skill. “It’s much better to use a blended learning approach,” she said. “Most people need to see it, hear it, write and apply it in order to learn it.”

When hiring a seasoned consultant, it shouldn’t take more than 3-6 months to ramp them up fully. “You’re looking at the first three months of getting them familiar with your agency’s policies, preferred suppliers and procedures. Then the next three months is to reinforce sales, marketing and destination training.”

Consider your resources
“If it seems like hiring will be a lot of work, it’s because you’re probably envisioning having to do everything yourself. But I’m a big believer in mentoring. Your staff are a first-line offering,” Botelho said.

If you’re a company of one, you are it, though.

“Are you ready to be a coach? Even then you should be aware of the content available for you. For example, what training does your consortia have available?”

The Travel Institute offers online training tools for agency new hires, including a product from Tripkit, a foundational training program contained online in two text books. The Travel Institute has a full spectrum of training offerings that can be accessed here.

Guida Botelho is director of training with the Travel Institute. She designs training programs for all levels of experience and business models in the travel industry and works closely with travel agencies in developing career paths and targeted training for current employees and new talent.