At a media luncheon at The Chatwal, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Protravel International announced its new travel advisor training program, dubbed “The Journeys.” The three-part program will cater to new-to-the-industry advisors, as well as those who have been around for several years and are looking to take their business to the next level. Deanna Fjelsted, director of talent development, will be running the program.
The three parts include:
- The Advisor Professional Journey, which includes professional development, business coaching and mentoring, lead generation and exclusive events
- The Supplier Partner Journey, which includes partnerships with luxury suppliers (two cruise brands and four hotels brands, to start), exclusive offers, dedicated marketing, and sales and marketing training
- The Traveler Journey, which includes a new content site offering the “inside scoop” on destinations and itineraries curated specifically for Protravel clientele and other exclusive offers
Becky Powell, president of Protravel, says the goal of the program is to “recruit, retain and develop entrepreneurial luxury advisors focused on serving discerning travelers, and to provide advisors with the skills, tools and resources to reach the top of their profession and maximize their earning potential.”
Advisors in the program will be able to build a business plan with a coach and mentor. For the first session, 15 advisors are in the program. Powell says, ideally, Protravel would have upwards of 25 participants each iteration of the course. The program is offered through Protravel’s learning management system with occasional on-site workshops.
The program also offers three levels of certification: Professional Advisor, Executive Advisor and Concierge Advisor. To reach the first level, Powell says it will take an advisor six months; the complete all three, it will take 18 months.
The Professional Advisor course is designed for those who are in the early stages of their career or those looking to build a better business plan. Mentoring and one-on-one coaching, workshops and events, partner FAMS, sales training and lead generation are all included with the course. The Executive Advisor track offers advanced sales courses, one-on-one coaching and “unrivaled” partner support. Lastly, the Concierge Advisor track was developed for “advisors who are at the pinnacle of their career,” and offers them top-level customer service and exclusive, targeted marking opportunities.
Powell, adds, however that very new advisors (with little to no training) should take the Travel Leaders of Tomorrow course, which builds basic industry knowledge in a 20-hour independent study program. (A reduced fee is available for advisors who opt to take both the Travel Leaders and Protravel courses.)
In addition, Protravel reveal a new brand identity. Powell says her team studied numerous luxury brands, such as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Waldorf Astoria, Burberry, Cartier, Givenchy and others. Protravel performed a wordmark and color palette analysis. The result? A new, all-black wordmark in a simpler font. The red has been removed and a secondary color of vermillion was added.The new identity can symbolize exciting times for Protravel. Powell also discussed Protravel’s marketing initiatives, beginning with a new strategic partnership with Google, which helps drive high-value leads to its advisors. With the partnership, highly targets “luxury leisure” prospects matching Protravel’s advisors’ customers’ persona through Google’s proprietary search intent tactics. Per Google, 17,000 luxury leisure travel-related searches are input every day; Protravel is aiming to tap into this market. In fewer than two months, Powell says, the partnership resulted in over 19 million impressions and 1,000-plus leads and multiple bookings averaging $12,000 for its advisors.
On the same note, Protravel also hosted a “Crazy Rich Americans Love Singapore” campaign in partnership with Visit Singapore, based off the Crazy Rich Asians film. Protravel sent four influencers and three photographers to Singapore to drive traffic and engagements on Protravel’s social channels with links to detailed itineraries. The combined audience was 1.7 million followers.
Visit www.protravelinc.com.
This story originally appeared on www.luxurytraveladvisor.com.
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