Even without the pandemic, promoting and selling romance travel as a Canadian travel advisor has never been easy. It’s rewarding to help couples plan the best trips of their lives – but, it takes lots of hard work and skill to plan and manage destination weddings, honeymoons, and other types of romantic getaways!
That’s why DWHSA will offer the very first Canadian version of its Romance Travel Boot Camp on Wednesday, June 9! The entire full-day workshop will focus on issues and techniques for Canada-based travel advisors.
You can now complete the entire Romance Travel Boot Camp curriculum from your office or home. As long as your computer works and you have coffee nearby, you’re ready to go!
If you’re a “solopreneur” (i.e., you ARE the agency!), taking these classes without traveling anywhere can save you lots of time and money. And, if you have in-house employees or outside agents who need this training during the pandemic, they can devote a single day to learning the basics of romance travel at a very affordable rate.
Leading this course will be Liz Scull! Liz developed and managed Ensemble Travel Group’s “DestinationVows” program (dedicated to destination wedding travel specialists throughout North America). She joined Ensemble in 2010 as marketing manager – and, in addition to her work with DestinationVows, she also became managing editor and creative director of “Vacations” (Ensemble’s premier travel magazine). Now, she’s become a travel advisor herself (based in Toronto).
Teaching with Liz will be DWHSA President Lisa Sheldon! She’s trained thousands of travel advisors in this niche since DWHSA’s founding in 2013. During her 30-year career in the travel industry, Lisa has managed a AAA Travel office and owned her own storefront agency, and today she runs I Do Island Weddings (her home-based travel business) in Janesville, Wis.
We’ll divide the day into 4 90-minute classes, with breaks in between so you can catch your breath and handle client messages.
Plus, we’ll record the four classes and post them in a password-protected site for you for 3 months after the workshop is over – so, you can sign in and go over any parts of the workshop you want to review again.
Here’s the breakdown of the online boot camp:
INTRODUCTION TO ROMANCE TRAVEL (11 am to 12.30 pm Eastern/8 am to 9.30 am Pacific)
- Types of romance travel you can sell (honeymoons, vow renewals, buddymoons, anniversaries, proposal getaways)
- Who is your target client?
- The anatomy of a destination wedding (including timelines for both your couples and you)
- A “real” destination wedding (what happens from your clients’ arrival at the resort through the reception)
- Strategies to “up your game” (what can you provide that other advisors don’t offer?)
- Tips for earning additional revenue besides the trip commission
STARTING YOUR ROMANCE TRAVEL BUSINESS (12.45 pm to 2.15 pm Eastern/9.45 am to 11.15 am Pacific)
- Harnessing the power of knowing your product
- Mastering COVID rules (suppliers’ health and safety protocols as well as destination entry requirements)
- Creating your business plan and picking an agency name
- Setting up your web site and developing social media pages
- Handling accounting tasks and reconciling files
- Getting the most from FAMs and virtual resort visits
SALES AND MARKETING FOR ROMANCE TRAVEL (3.15 pm to 4.45 pm Eastern/12.15 pm to 1.45 pm Pacific)
- Introducing and charging service fees
- Closing leads more effectively
- Developing your following on social media
- Promoting your agency in local markets
- Building stronger relationships for clients and referrals
- Securing supplier funds for marketing
ROMANCE TRAVEL TRENDS (5 pm to 6.30 pm Eastern/2 pm to 3.30 pm Pacific)
- The latest trends and traditions for destination weddings and other types of romance travel
We’ll email you an Adobe PDF copy of the workshop materials a few days before your boot camp date. And, about a week after the boot camps end, we’ll send you the login information to access the boot camp site where the four videos will be stored for three months afterwards.
Registrations are completely nonrefundable, but you’re welcome to transfer your registration to another agent if you wish.
Once you’ve submitted the form below, you’ll be taken to a page where you can pay the registration fee. We’ll follow up afterwards to confirm you! If you have questions, you may reach us at support@dwhsa.com or 615.730.9977. Thanks!
Image: Iberostar