Tourism New Zealand is preparing to launch its new online agent training program, which will align more closely with its 100% Pure New Zealand brand.
The program, to also be renamed 100% Pure New Zealand, will be released on May 31 featuring one core module and 9 regional modules, with additional specialist modules such as ski also available.
Agents must complete 10 modules and have visited New Zealand once in order to be considered experts, general manager Australia Tim Burgess told Travel Today.
“It’s been developed to be interesting, easy to use and very strong visually,” he said. “We’ve tried to make it more engaging and representative of our brand and our destination.”
Although a global program, the importance of the Australian market has been a major consideration in the development of the new program.
In addition, the tourism body has worked closely with trade partners such as Flight Centre and JTG in order to ascertain their expectations of such a training scheme.
“Rather than go off and design modules on our own, we’ve approached the trade right from the get go and asked them some critical questions about the must dos and the must don’ts,” he said.
Once in the test phase, the tourism body enlisted the help of Australian travel agents to test the program and offer feedback.
"It's been a real learning process," Burgess said. "We have replaced the things we thought we knew with things we now actually know."
Agents that complete the scheme will be given preferential consideration when planning famils, with another "even better" mega famil already looking like a distinct possibility for next year, following up on last week's event attended by 255 Australian agents.
