Travel Village Group has recognised the first nine graduates of its six-month river cruise academy.
The programme included in-person and virtual training events, river cruise fam trips and online programmes from suppliers including AmaWaterways, APT, Scenic and Uniworld.
The training culminated in a graduation event at the Clia RiverView Conference 2025 in Budapest for several trainees, with further sessions to follow on ‘Finding your Market’ and ‘Marketing Assets’.
This year’s graduates were Maria Hedley, Heather Tarrant, Chrisi Forbes, Jacqueline Davis, Joanna Parkin, Jodie-Lianne Tompkins, Lynne Page, Emma Andrews and Kirsty Van Wyk, who are all Holiday Village business owners.
The river cruise academy launched in September after Amanda Taylor, Holiday Village business development manager, and Richard Cross, group commercial manager, developed the idea following Clia’s RiverView Conference in Amsterdam last year.
Trainees for a new intake for the river cruise academy for this year will be invited soon.
Lynne Page, Holiday Village business owner and academy graduate, said: “I feel extremely lucky and grateful to have had the chance to be part of the first river cruise academy with Travel Village Group.
“My knowledge and confidence in bringing the experience of river cruising to my clients has increased massively. I have hosted one in-person event and an online event and bookings are now starting to come in, which I am thrilled about.
“The support has been amazing and I am now a river cruise convert as well as an expert.”
Taylor said: “Our business owners have been fully immersed in our river cruise academy for the past six months.
“We have had a minimum of eight virtual training sessions and all members have completed the online training available from our supplier partners, who have been fully committed to our programme.
“We are truly grateful for the support they have given. We have already seen growth in our river cruise sales, which is exciting to see and fully validates the purpose of the academy.”