Suppliers in the Canary Islands are to host one of the first in-person networking and training events for travel agents in London next month.
Hotels including H10 Hotels, Palladium Hotel Group, Spring Hotels Group, Hotel Jardin Tecina, Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Botanico and the Oriental Spa Garden, and attractions Loro Parque Animal Embassy, Poema del Mar aquarium and Siam Park water park have joined forces to offer training to the trade.
The Canary Islands are among the destinations exempt from the Foreign Office advice against all non-essential travel but remain on the government’s amber traffic light list, meaning packages to the islands can operate but holidaymakers returning to the UK must self-isolate at home for 10 days.
Suppliers are hopeful the islands may soon be added to the green list of destinations for this summer.
Lawrence Peachey, UK & Ireland representative for Hotel Jardin Tecina and Tecina Golf, said: “We are confident, we think the travel market is coming back and decided to do something rather than wait and see. I think we will be, if not the first, one of the first, agent training events.”
Organisers say they have been “inundated” within days of announcing the event, with requests from almost 100 agents interested in attending.
“I was incredibly surprised by how quickly people signed up and it shows the willingness to get back to normality,” added Peachey. “It will be fantastic to see some of our travel industry colleagues after such a long gap and get opinions on what the future shape of the travel industry will be.”
The event will run three sessions of 25 agents each at 11am, 3pm and 7pm on June 15 at H10 London Waterloo Hotel, with drinks and snacks provided during a networking session followed by product training presentations by suppliers.
The event is free to attend and agents will be chosen at random out of those that sign up. Further details can be found here.