IMAGINE this for a second. You’re on a beach in the middle of the afternoon. Soft white sand squeezes between your toes and the sun warms your back. The only thing you can hear is the sound of tropical waves crashing just yards away.
So where exactly are you?
Chances are you’ve probably said you’re celebrating your recent lottery jackpot, or maybe on that once-in-a-lifetime holiday you’ve saved so hard for.
Nope, wrong answer. This is the latest in agent workshops, Queensland style.
The 34 agents that found themselves in the Australian seaside resort of Palm Cove were there as part of an educational with Gold Medal Travel Group, Queensland Tourism, the South Australia Tourist Commission and British Airways/Qantas.
Some had earned their place as the operator’s best sellers of Australian product; others were lucky enough to win a place as part of a competition in association with Travel Weekly, run at last November’s World Travel Market.
The educational was split into three groups, with agents heading off across the country. While some took in life on an outback sheep farming station in South Australia, others enjoyed the soft adventure possibilities around the Great Barrier Reef.
Gold Medal key account manager Diane Court said the operator had deliberately set out to reduce the number of hotel inspections on the trip to make it more of an event.
“We want people to see all sides of the Gold Medal product. Hopefully the hotels we’ve been to will be all the more memorable because we’ve not rushed from one to another, and in between there has been plenty of fun.
“We put the emphasis on enjoyment because that is why clients go on holiday.”
After a week apart the workshop united the groups again just a few miles north of Cairns, the venue for this year’s ABTA Convention.
It was the brainchild of Tourism Queensland UK marketing executive Jacqui Griffin and Tourism tropical North Queensland marketing operations manager Leigh Sorensen. What better way of showing off everything the region has to offer than get its ground suppliers along in a natural setting?
“The truth is we could have done this whole workshop in a conference room nearby,” explained Sorensen.
“It would have been easier to organise, but we wanted to set up something different and make it memorable. By holding the workshop on the beach we can showcase the weather and the scenery and show what Queensland is all about.
“The people here have a laid-back, relaxed attitude. All the suppliers wanted to come along because a workshop on the beach fits in with their lifestyles – they just want to have fun.”
Unlike other agent workshops, there was no painful form-filling either during or after the day’s activities. But there were two instructions – wear something cool and put on plenty of sun screen. A giant crate of bottled water made sure nobody got too hot.
All of the 20 suppliers at the workshop feature in the current Gold Medal brochure. Each sat at their own table and was visited by two or three agents at a time. Just 5mins later and it was off to the next one.
Though the sheer number of different products could have left the agents reeling there was certainly no sign of fatigue – in fact, many spent longer than their allotted time with their favourite suppliers gathering more information.
“That alone proves how successful the day has been,” said Griffin.
“Back in the UK agents sometimes really struggle to get motivated for workshops, but here we had them asking plenty of questions. They’ve got a glimpse of life in Queensland and that’s the best selling tool we could ask for.”