Travel Leaders announced its line-up of 2012 educational and training offerings available for Travel Leaders members (franchisees) and travel agents throughout the United States. This year Travel Leaders is introducing two proprietary new workshops, “Essential Skills for Managing People” and “Vacation Sales Toolbox,” as well as continuing other Travel Leaders workshops, net conferences and enhancements to its dedicated Certified Travel Specialist programs for business and leisure travel agents.

In addition, Travel Leaders will once again offer its Academy of Business Excellence both to new members and existing ones wishing for a complete refresher on all existing Travel Leaders programs and benefits. “The only constant with Travel Leaders’ education and training offerings is the updating they undergo to keep fresh with ever-changing needs of our members,” said Roger Block, CTC, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group. “We must be vigilant in maintaining foundational best practices so our members can deliver on Travel Leaders’ brand, reputation and promise. Our wide array of educational offerings not only enables them to achieve that objective, but they also help them differentiate their agencies in the marketplace as they proudly fly the Travel Leaders flag.”

Travel Leaders is using 2012 to kick-off two new workshops available exclusively to its members. “Essential Skills for Managing People” is designed to help Travel Leaders agency owners and managers further build and sharpen their management skills. “Our members have been clamoring for this type of offering, and when we offered a pilot session of this workshop in December, their evaluations for it provided nothing but excellent scores,” Block said. “We’re pleased that we’ll be able to begin offering this workshop regionally throughout the year.”

Meanwhile, “Vacation Sales Toolbox” will be launched in conjunction with Travel Leaders Regional Meetings in May. It will train Travel Leaders owners and managers how to implement and use Travel Leaders’ systems and products designed to further increase agent productivity and sales closing ratios, as well as coach their agents and measure their success. As part of the program, agents will be able to take online lessons and receive coaching from their managers when needed.

According to Block, one of the key initiatives undertaken by Travel Leaders since its rebranding was announced just over three years ago was its proprietary Certified Travel Specialist programs, with one track designed specifically for leisure agents and the second for business agents.

Travel Leaders’ Certified Leisure Travel Specialist designation remains the only travel industry certification requiring each travel specialist to complete a minimum of 195 credits in five advanced modules -- including those from travel’s most respected, leading educational organizations. First introduced as a cornerstone for the new Travel Leaders brand, the Certified Leisure Travel Specialist program now includes a mandatory workshop, “Ready! Set! Sell!,” offered regionally throughout the United States. With the increasing role of Travel Leaders’ SCORE Program in providing online consumer leads to its participating members, the workshop specifically addresses the sales process for the online customer.

With Travel Leaders’ Certified Business Travel Specialist program, specialist candidates are now required to successfully complete an extensive business travel customer service workshop, “Turning Business Travelers into Raving Fans,” offered regionally throughout the United States.

“Considering just how challenging each of these two certification designations is to achieve, we’re extremely pleased with the success of both,” Block said. “To date, we’ve now had 217 graduates in our Certified Leisure Travel Specialist program since its inception and a total of 680 agents have signed up to participate. Since launching our Certified Business Travel Specialist designation just over two years ago, we’ve had 18 graduates and 138 agents participating.”

Offerings for Travel Leaders’ business travel agencies include workshops and net conferences on corporate online booking tools, workshops for new sales managers, regular net conferences on new business travel programs, regular net conferences on sales and account management strategies and tools. Because of the wide array of technology products available to its members, Travel Leaders continues to update online lessons for each of its new programs that were officially launched at the 2011 National Meeting in Las Vegas, including Travel Leaders Managed Mid-Office, Mobile App Program, and the InteGREAT Marketing Platform

Block indicated that new education and training opportunities will be added throughout 2012. Travel Leaders Associates can monitor Mercavia.com and Travel Leaders’ numerous other communications vehicles to learn what new opportunities are available to them. To learn more about eligibility for participating in any of Travel Leaders’ proprietary education and training offerings, agency owners can call 800-234-8241.