SCANDINAVIAN Travel Service will be watching booking patterns carefully in the next few weeks to judge the success of its Academy of Training in the wake of its first series of roadshows.
The academy was launched at World Travel Market in November to encourage agents to learn about Scandinavia, and, more importantly, to translate that knowledge into sales.
More than 225 agents have signed up to get benefits including 13% commission and special promotions such as a 15% commission offer announced at the Guildford roadshow, for all Norwegian Coastal Voyage bookings taken now for August and September departures.
Academy members also get prizes in return for bookings and will go on educationals to Scandinavia. The first trip is in May, and will see 150 agents visit Bergen, with a one-way travel by Fjord Line to experience the sea crossing and one-way by air.
STS managing director Iain Cottam said: “This is commercial training directed at helping agents to sell our product.”
To underline that, the evening presentation repeatedly referred agents to the operator’s main Scandinavian programme and the Norwegian Coastal Voyage Cruising with a Difference programme.
This first series of roadshows was a beginners’ guide to the region. It started in Norwich, with 50 agents, and went to Guildford, Manchester and Edinburgh, before ending in Newcastle on March 14.
“We might later move on to offer intermediate evenings, and go into the product in more depth,” said Cottam.
“We are almost making it up as we go along as it is such a new thing,” he added.
“No other small niche operator is doing something like this. The academy is a major commitment financially but if we do not take things forward, I fear Scandinavia will be marginalised.”
Cottam said the cost of running the academy will top £200,000.
For the training, the agents are split into five teams – Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland – each of which has a representative from the respective tourist board on hand to talk about their countries.
“This is an opportunity for the tourist boards to talk to agents and get feedback from the market.
“It comes back to the fact we are trying to relate the training to selling the product,” he added.
A second series of Scandinavia roadshows will be held in the autumn but dates have not yet been fixed.