Tina the Travel Agent arrives at The Old Mill in Toronto for Transat's Europe training academy.
Dan Prior, Transat's Director of Sales, together with Open Jaw's own Tina the Travel Agent.
Tina with other travel agent colleagues
Tina with other travel agent colleagues
Tina takes a deep dive into her training
On 06FEB, Transat greeted agents from the Toronto area at the first of six training academy sessions in Ontario.
Offering a deep dive into the 200+ pages of its 2018-2019 Europe & Israel brochure, and the 80 packages offered within, the focus is all about educating the agents. “There’s a lot of product in there and tonight we want to point them to the best-selling product so that when they do get requests, they have the go-to packages top-of-mind,” said Dan Prior, sales director for Transat.
Indeed, within the pages of this brochure, Transat has just about everything a client could want on their next trip overseas, including a wide range of flight options, tried and true packages, active vacations like cycling tours and, of course, hotels galore. which is why Prior emphasized this program being an agent’s – and their clients’ – one-stop-shop for all things Europe.
While there are no new destinations in the program this year, Transat’s new ‘Your Way’ tours give agents something new to promote to independent-minded travellers who want the logistics taken care of while they explore on their own.
These are, essentially, guided tours without a group. The package includes flights, transfers, hotel stays, motor coach transportation between cities and the services of a guide during transportation. Once clients step off the coach, they are on their own, free to do as they please. ‘Your Way’ tours are available in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Croatia.
“We always suggest guided tours but they’re not for everyone,” said Prior. “But rather than having to say ‘Well, I don’t have anything else for you’, agents can break it down further and say ‘Well, if you don’t want a fully guided tour, what about a ‘Your Way’ tour? -- and if their clients still don’t really want that, they can break it down again to a two-city tour, or finally just air and hotel.”
For clients in need of a connecting flight to reach the Continent, Prior highlighted the enhanced domestic flight program available, while also hinting at more news to come.
The Transat Team was out in full force for the first of 6 stops of their Europe training academies.
