The Latin American Travel Association (LATA), in collaboration with Online Travel Training (OTT) has announced the launch of its Online Travel Training Academy. The OTT course comes as part of LATA’s ambition to ensure that agents feel more confident in selling the destination and will include a three-month long competition for agents upon their completion of the course.
The launch comes as a direct response to research commissioned by LATA that investigated the awareness of Latin America as a travel destination both amongst the trade and consumes. LATA worked with TTG, Wanderlust Magazine and the Mail/Metro group to look at perceptions of Latin America and it soon became clear that there is a great deal of misconception amongst consumers and that agents were perhaps not adequately equipped with the tools and resources to confidently sell the destination.
Aside from some of the larger resorts in Mexico and other pockets of Latin America such as the Dominican Republic, through its research LATA concluded that there are huge knowledge gaps and that the tourism opportunities from across the continent were not necessarily recognised among consumers. With the introduction of the OTT Academy, LATA hopes that agents will have all the information at their disposal to expertly communicate the abundant and diverse tourism offerings from each individual country.
LATA’s vision for the OTT Academy is for it to become a one-stop-shop for all training on Latin America and that all OTT Latin American content will be aggregated in one place. To start off, LATA has invested in a set of beginners guides to Latin America. The plan is to have five courses which cover the 24 countries in Latin America with each country module covering the basics: capital, language, currency, visa requirements, and getting there as well as five top highlights to give a flavour of each destination.
LATA’s competition, running alongside the launch from up until 31 March 2020, will see agents in with a chance to win £25 worth of Love2shop vouchers for each completed course and the chance to win £250 worth of Love2shop vouchers upon completion of all five courses. Click HERE to see the LATA OTT Academy.
The next stage for LATA is rolling out a series of experiential agent roadshows across the country beginning on 21 April 2020. The roadshow, in collaboration with some of the biggest Latin American destinations, will travel to London, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow showcasing the best of the continent. The events will be interactive and agents will be able to register their interest for the roadshows HERE.
Colin Stewart, Chairman of LATA, commented:
“The objective of the OTT Academy is to equip travel agents with the necessary tools, knowledge and resources to better sell the continent. We hope this initiative coupled with our agent roadshows will bolster the understanding of Latin America as a visitor destination, showcase some of the diverse travel experiences available and ultimately make the travel trade feel more confident in selling the destination.”
-ENDS-
For more information on Online Travel Training, please visit www.onlinetraveltraining.com/uk
Editorial Notes
For more information on visitor statistics from the UK to Latin America, please email latapr@wearelotus.co.uk or contact Kate McWilliams or George Leonard at LOTUS (020 7953 7470).