Canada’s national marketing organisation has unveiled a new rewards programme for travel agents, offering them the chance to earn attraction passes for themselves.
Destination Canada said agents who complete the training modules on the Canada Specialist Programme (CSP) and reach platinum status will enter the new rewards scheme.
Agents will be able to track their training progress online and, upon reaching the platinum level, they will see their personalised badge and a link to the rewards programme.
The badge and certificates can be used to promote their Canada knowledge to clients.
The passes can be redeemed for personal use to help agents increase their knowledge of Canadian attractions.
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The passes offer access to places such as the CN Tower in Toronto and the Huron Wendat Museum in Quebec. Also available is a Banff VIP Alive Pass, Winnipeg Attractions Pass and Montreal Discovery pass.
Other participating organisations include Tourism Whistler, Tourism Vancouver, Tourism Calgary, Destination St John’s and Discover Saskatoon.
The CSP helps agents learn about Canada’s tourism products and offers 24/7 access to a toolset to promote and sell the destination.
Adam Hanmer, travel trade manager at Destination Canada, said: “Having launched this new training programme in 2021 – ensuring that it is fully mobile-accessible – Destination Canada has continued to work to update and ignite agents’ enthusiasm for Canada with new modules, exclusive CSP fams and webinar training all being introduced in the past two years.
“Experience has shown us that providing agents with the means to access tourism experiences for themselves on their own personal travels is a key force in ensuring the industry is able to sell Canada to their clients.”
Travel Counsellors’ Debbie King said: “Canada’s training is among the best that the industry offers.
“Nearly every destination in the world has some kind of training so I do a lot, but Canada is always fab. The training and webinars are really good.”
Independent agent Julie Hendrikson added: “I recently booked an itinerary featuring Toronto, Niagara Falls, Kingson, Montreal and Prince Edward Island. It was fun putting it together and the training and webinars really helped me a lot.”