AGENTS can turn themselves into captains of the cruise industry with a new Royal Caribbean online training programme.
Designed specifically for the UK trade, the E-learning programme is an extension of the cruiseline’s Cruise for Excellence training scheme that saw 2,100 agents trained in face-to-face sessions last year. It is hoped the online training will increase this number to 6,000 this year.
Agents can log on through Royal Caribbean’s agent website, Cruisingpower.com, and the programme will take them from ‘cadet’ status through to ‘pursar’ and on to ‘captain’ via a series of interactive multichoice quizzes, games and information screens.
Certificates are awarded for each completed section and nautical points can be earned each time a question is answered correctly. Points can be exchanged for prizes.
The system, which includes training for both Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, takes around three hours to complete and allows agents to stop and pick up where they left off at a later date.
UK and Ireland managing director Robin Shaw said the scheme would help challenge some of the myths about cruising and its success would be gauged by how many agents sign up.
“We hope this will be a step forward and cutting edge in the industry for online training. We have something that will help the trade understand cruising in general and, just as importantly, our products,” Shaw said.
Advantage account manager David Whitaker said: “It’s first class. There is nothing else like it out there and it has got to be good for members.”
Royal Caribbean’s face-to-face training programme will continue.
For more on online training and to access Travel Weekly’s own courses see the Travel Weekly Academy homepage