Travel Weekly helps agents sell online

TRAVEL Weekly has organised a ‘virtual’ online seminar on Wednesday to help travel agents get the most out of their web presence.

The free event, run in partnership with online travel training firm Academy Internet, is available to listen to at www.academyinternet.com and www.travelweekly.co.uk and will give agents expert tips on how to stand out online and increase web sales.

The 90-minute online seminar is split into two parts and chaired by destination branding specialist Alan Williamson. During the first hour, the seminar will look at successful destination branding online. It will focus on the difference between high street and web branding and will cover a variety of destination branding case studies. The seminar will compare and contrast the branding of New York and London as well as Sussex and Kent’s tourism branding. The final 30 minutes will examine how agents can drive business to their websites.

Further topics covered include how to get to the top of Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

E-mail and weblink marketing will also be covered, plus online usability and increasing conversion rates.

Academy Internet director Jason Woodford said: “The web is an important channel for the travel sector.

“A Google search for weekend breaks brings up 886,000 results, while weekend breaks shows 142,000 different options. There is so much competition online, although few are doing it very well.”

Agents can register for the conference at www.academyinternet.com.

The event starts at 10am on Wednesday May 12.