Since day one with YTB, I’ve considered myself a “Travel Agent”. Not because I had any special training, achieved any special credentials, or aligned myself with any specific host. It was an attitude that I had when I joined. I was about as green as they came when I joined YTB, but I did have a passion for travel and a desire to learn that got me to the point that I am today. I’ve heard over and over that unless I align myself with one of those legitimate hosts out there, that I’d never be considered a “Travel Agent”.

Yet, the folks with all the arrogance and attitude – haven’t actually experienced the service and value I bring to my clients.

Fact is, anyone can become a “Travel Agent” with the proper mindset and willingness to learn and it doesn’t matter what company you align yourself with. Other than my family, 99.9% of our clients have no idea who or what YTB is. All they know is Doug and Ronda with BandBVacations.com. If a client has a change in schedule, a problem with a booking, or happen to need assistance with arrangements, the “Agent” they call is us, not the Home Office.

That being said, having the mindset of “Travel Agent” isn’t going to cut the mustard when it comes to servicing our clients. We could have all the love and passion in the world – but without the proper knowledge to actually assist our clients, mindset alone is moot.

It also takes knowledge and training to drive this business and make it a success.

When YTB launched the E-Campus training two years ago with theAcademy.com and Dr. Marc Mancini, I was ecstatic. At the time, it was a major advancement and move towards training our sales force. The move was also “pro-active”, being launched before all the attention and fuss in the news and media publications came out about YTB being some sort of “card mill”. (A term and definition we still don’t answers for two years later.)

Like Carnival Corporation, Apple Vacations, Pleasant Holidays, Collette, World Choice, Globus, and other preferred suppliers who do business with YTB, Dr. Mancini saw something in YTB that lead to this training to help the company achieve its long term goal of being a dominant force in the travel industry.

If you’re going to partner with someone, they might as well be the best. Here’s a little bio that I picked up on Dr. Mancini two years ago.

What’s even more impressive is that the YTB E-Campus program is designed by Dr. Marc Mancini, one of the travel industry’s most highly respected speakers, educators and consultants and authors of such books as Conducting Tours: A Practical Guide, Cruising: A Guide to the Cruise Line Industry, and Selling Destinations: Geography for the Travel Professional. Dr Mancini and his firm are the creative force behind some of the best-known and most successful training programs in the business including training programs for CLIA, AAA, and NTA.

What YTB did was land the industries leading authority in travel to design and implement a very intensive and thorough training program that covers the following 10 segments.

• Course 101: Overview of the Travel Industry
• Course 102: Lodging
• Course 103: Tours / Groups
  
• Course 104: Cruising
  
• Course 105: Air Travel
  
• Course 106: Rail, Car Rentals and the Rest
  
• Course 107: Travel Sales, Service and Marketing
  
• Course 108: Destinations: North and South America
  
• Course 109: Destinations: Europe
  
• Course 110: Destinations: Africa, Asia and the South Pacific

And for doing what we as “Travel Agents” should do for our business and completing this course, what do you think YTB did to reward those who took their travel business seriously?

• The ability to drop the “R” from RTA and the title of “Travel Agent”
  
• 75% Commission Contract
  
• Monthly YTB Special Promotions
  
• Entry For A Free Cruise
  
• Exclusive YTB FAM Trips
  
• Training Events & Trade Show (Funshine was comped)
  
• The Fun & Travel Magazine to help you grow your business
  

Not too shabby for some rinky-dink MLM that has no interest in Travel huh? Fact is, those who claim YTB doesn’t offer training haven’t been paying attention to the facts. Instead, they choose to ignore any type of training to keep their fantasy over YTB being less than legitimate alive.

We posted a list of those who completed the E-Campus training this past weekend in our newsletter. If you’re a YTB TSO or Rep and you’d like a listing to view, please get signed up on our list. I don’t think it’s appropriate to post this list publicly. With all the attention and animosity from a very small and childish group in the travel industry who have nothing better to do it will simply create more spin and turn this significant accomplishment into something it’s not.

For those who did complete this training, you know who you are. You know the value of knowledge and learning. I commend you for taking responsibility and ownership of your travel business. You can now not only call yourself “Travel Agent”, but earn an above average commission percentage found in the industry. (Industry average being 74%.)

Congratulations!

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Over the years I’ve read how my travel training is sub-par simply because I’m involved with YTB. In all the years I’ve seen those comments I’ve wondered two things.

One…how in the world would anyone outside of YTB even know what kind of travel training is available to those involved in YTB?

And two…can CLIA, TAUniv.com, TheAcademy.com or supplier specific training be any different from what other host agencies are able to acquire?

In my weekly newsletter I write each week for TSO’s, a good portion of that newsletter is dedicated to the subject of travel training. When I see folks like CLIA, Travel Agent University, The Academy, and a number of suppliers and vendors who promote training courses and webniars, it makes me wonder if I’m missing something. Are the Traditionalist getting something through osmosis that I’m not? It’s especially interesting when these trainings are live (like CLIA’s this summer) how this happens.

I consider myself somewhat observant and a smart enough guy. How this specialized training and knowledge has slipped past me all these years is very odd. It could be a case of more mud that’s thrown up in the hopes that it will stick for anyone who is looking into becoming a Travel Agent. If you find it via Google, it’s got to be true right? The tag line here is: because it’s YTB, somehow, you just can’t get the same type of quality training because it’s MLM. 

Truth be told, it’s not the lack of training that’s available in this industry that’s the problem. The problem for those that are caught up in all the “issues” with YTB is that the individuals involved in our company don’t appear to have any interest or care to participate in the training that’s available. What we have come to understand over the years however, is the “issues” are more or less “illusions”. Remember, the mud thrown up is to make it look like the majority care only about “recruiting”. Yet, the last two years of Income Disclosures document a very small number recruit. (Fact is, about 10% actually do.)

So what’s available to the other 90% who got involved with YTB?

When writing a newsletter like mine, a key to it’s success or failure is knowing what your readership likes. What pushes thier buttons. A big reason why I put so much travel training information in my newsletter is because my readership responds to it. I not only track, but I pay close attention to open rates and click rates to see how effective my information is. (It’s all part of proper marketing and building trust.) Every week, without fail, travel training consistently ranks very high in clicks.

For example, I mentioned CLIA’s TrainingFest which will tour 12 cities this summer. While I’ve promoted this in my newsletter for several weeks now, each week this live course for Cruise Counselor Credits ranked extremely high from my readership. (Out numbered 2 to 1 over any other piece I wrote the first week I promoted it.) They, like me, have a keen interest in learning and growing in the travel industry.

In addition, new 2009 CLIA applicants are required to be enrolled in, or to have achieved a designation (ACC, MCC, ECC, ECCS) in CLIA’s Cruise Counselor Certification Program. Attainment of an ACC designation requires a program of mandatory and elective training options as well personal cruise experience, shipboard inspections and 25 cabin sales within the two year enrollment period.

What about Travel Agent University? US Airways is offering a Vacations Specialist Course this week through this program that looks to be the same course offered to Traditionalists. These “home-study” programs by the Education and Training Division of Travel Agent Magazine offer a wide variety of programs and courses for anyone interested in learning about destinations and suppliers. There are dozens of programs and courses to choose from within this particular training program. Since these courses are designed by the staff of Travel Agent Magazine, again, I can’t imagine a special course just for YTB, and another for Traditionalists.

Another high click rate the past two weeks have been Apple Vacations and their Agent Academy now in year two of the program. These 10-unit educational course on selling Apple Vacations expands on what we learned in year one. Of course, those who are new to YTB and Apple Vacations have an opportunity to take year one, and then move on to year two in order to get you up to speed. I can’t imagine how or why Apple Vacations would have one course for Traditionalist and another course for YTB.

We can’t forget OneSource from Princess and Cunard either. This Travel Agent Training center is most likely the strongest from any supplier in the industry. (At least ones not offered through programs like Travel Agent University or TheAcademy.com) I’ve heard many times over how much others have learned through this course, and how the curriculum found there can lead to more cruise sales across the board.

And of course there’s YTB E-Campus. While E-campus appears to be an exclusive YTB training, it’s not designed by YTB at all. Instead, we left that up to the most respected and well known trainer in the industry, Dr. Marc Mancini. Dr Mancini and his firm are the creative force behind some of the best-known and most successful training programs in the business including training programs for CLIA, AAA, and NTA. While there has been quite a bit of speculation that all 10 courses would never be rolled out, YTB is currently in need of one final program, (Course 110) to complete the entire library of training.

E-Campus is a considerable investment for our TSO’s who desire to become “Travel Agents”. Word is with the completion of this 10 course series, we’ll be able to drop the “R” from “Referring Travel Agent” and be considered “Travel Agents”.

There will always be a few stragglers who simply won’t accept anyone involved in YTB as “Travel Agents”. You need to keep in mind that these are the same people who won’t accept YTB as a seller of travel period. If they want to get caught up in the myths and spin surrounding a company like YTB, I’d simply allow them to do so. What I’d recommend instead is getting yourself plugged into something like my newsletter to keep you up to date on the abundance of travel industry training available.

You’ll quickly learn that the industry is an “equal opportunity trainer” and most suppliers, training centers, and specialized courses offered in this industry could care less about who you might be tied to as a Host Agency. It’s apparent to me that there’s an abuandance of training available if you simply know where to look.

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A new instructional series designed to be one of the most ambitious and comprehensive-training programs ever offered by a host agency has been launched by YTB for its growing number of Referring Travel Agents. (RTA’s) The courses designed by TheAcademy.com will initially consist of 10 unique courses and will be rolled out by introducing a new course every six to eight weeks, until the 10 courses have been implemented.

What’s even more impressive is that the YTB E-Campus program is designed by Dr. Marc Mancini, one of the travel industry’s most highly respected speakers, educators and consultants and authors of such books as Conducting Tours: A Practical Guide, Cruising: A Guide to the Cruise Line Industry, and Selling Destinations: Geography for the Travel Professional. Dr Mancini and his firm are the creative force behind some of the best-known and most successful training programs in the business including training programs for CLIA, AAA, and NTA.

YTB’s first course “Overview of the Travel Industry”, is currently active, and will be followed by courses on lodging, tours/groups, cruising, air, rail/car rentals, sales/service/marketing, and three courses on destination geography.

J. Kim Sorensen, President and CEO of YTB Travel Network, said, “We are excited about the launch of the YTB E-Campus program, and our partnership with Dr. Mancini. YTB E-Campus was developed to enhance our existing RTA training program by offering comprehensive courses via the Internet. The launch of this program is not only an investment in our RTAs, but also a long-term investment in growing our business and increasing shareholder equity.”

Way to go YTB, and thank you for building the best travel business opportunity available!

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