Future Travel has joined ABTA’s Accredited Travel Professional (ATP) scheme to boost sales.
Managing director Jane Atkins said not only does the scheme, which the homeworking agency joined in time to announce at its annual conference last month, allow travel agents to develop their own skills but also further proves their expertise to the wider public.
She added: “From the homeworkers’ point of view it gives them something to talk to their customers about and shows they have a certain level of knowledge, while the consumers can be sure they are working with a real travel professional.”
Atkins said the ATP scheme was just one of the subjects discussed at Future Travel’s conference in Palma and which was attended by around 150 Future Travel and Personal Travel Advisors agents.
She said the firm devoted much of the conference to reminding delegates of the value of the in-house products available to them, including the Escape dynamic packaging system, the Spectrum Cruises cruise arm and the recently launched tour operator, Co-operative Holidays.
Commercial and marketing manager David Winterton also launched the Future Travel and Personal Travel Advisors websites, which are not only fully bookable but fully trackable, meaning agents should not be missing out on commissions.
Atkins added the conference had also proved an invaluable way of geeing up the company’s agents, who are outperforming a market that is around 12%.
She added: “The conference is about getting homeworkers together and presenting them with the opportunities we have arranged; it is absolutely vital with any business for staff to get together but with homeworkers even more so.”