Earlier this month at the ABTA Convention 2012, VisitEngland demonstrated its commitment to the travel trade by launching a new, comprehensive strategy aimed at inspiring and supporting travel agents and operators to sell more English holidays than ever before.
LONDON – Fundamental to the strategy is the tourist board’s new training programme, englandexpert.com, running in association with TravelUni, which has proved so popular with agents that the programme received 100 sign-ups in its first week.
The first 50 agents who complete the first module will be entered into a prize draw to win a fantastic package of pampering loveliness at Thermae Bath Spa, a trip on the London Eye plus dinner for two courtesy of DoSomethingDifferent.com, shopping vouchers courtesy of Great Rail Journeys and lots more prizes kindly sponsored by Shearings, Preston Holidays, Superbreak and My Chocolate.
The England Expert programme consists of two modules:
- What makes England great: containing information on how to sell England and where to book
- England the facts: England destination information split into geographical areas, designed to test knowledge with a fun interactive map game
Congratulations go to Karen Dale from John Proctor Travel who was englandexpert.com’s first agent to register, and to Gwyneth Prosser, from Owens Travelmaster Holidays, who was the 100th person to register. They are both in with a chance to win a prize as soon as they complete the first module.
In addition to the training programme, VisitEngland will launch a new £2m TV advertisement in the spring of next year, specifically created to encourage Brits to book a holiday in England through their local travel agent. Mike Greenacre, ex Managing Director of The Cooperative Travel Group has been retained by VisitEngland to work on a part-time basis on this project. He brings with him considerable retail experience and will support the VisitEngland team to work with operators on this exciting opportunity.
