Madeira in Portugal will host the joint Aito and Aito Specialist Travel Agents’ overseas conference in June.
The location for the conference was revealed at this weekend’s domestic agents conference in Warwickshire, which attracted 220 delegates – higher than the usual 160-180 delegates.
The conference, from June 14-17 in Funchal, will be sponsored by the Portuguese National Tourist Office and the Madeira Promotion Bureau.
Aito Specialist Travel Agents chairman Oliver Broad said the decision had been made to hold the second joint conference at a popular holiday destination. Last year the first joint conference was held at the lesser-known city of Vilnius in Lithuania.
The conference booklet, including early booking offers, will be published in a couple of weeks.
Details of further plans for Aito Specialist Travel Agents in 2012 were outlined at the domestic conference, including training sessions from March 14-16 in Manchester, Birmingham and London, and further training in the same cities in the autumn.
In addition, the organisation’s online training is to be revamped with an academy due to launch in the spring. This will allow members to complete training modules on Aito operators. Aito is happy to work with operators who need help to develop training modules.
A free consumer travel magazine is also being put together for members to give to customers to inspire them to travel and encourage them to book through an Aito travel agent. It is hoped that agents will each receive around 200 copies to give out to clients.