With Eastern Europe, river cruising and authentic travel trending strongly for 2024, TRAVELSAVERS’s top 50 travel advisors experienced it all during their recent Elite Retreat. The advisors cruised the Danube from Budapest to Vienna on the Avalon Impression Nov. 29 to Dec. 5 in recognition of their sales success.
In a new TRAVELSAVERS survey, advisors named Eastern Europe among the top rising destinations for next year and river cruising as one of the most popular travel styles. River cruise sales are up by 50 percent year over year for the network in the U.S. and 114 percent in Canada. Personalized experiences and authentic travel also placed on the top-five list of emerging trends, and both came to life for the Elite advisors as they immersed themselves in the region’s unique history and culture.
In every port, a winter wonderland awaited TRAVELSAVERS consultants. They visited the region’s celebrated Christmas markets and sampled sweet treats of the season. In Budapest, advisors visited a factory creating glass ornaments by hand using traditional techniques and decorated their own art. In Bratislava, the group learned creative techniques in a painting workshop. In Vienna, they attended a Champagne reception and exclusive evening tour of the magnificent Baroque Belvedere Palace.
“The TRAVELSAVERS Elite Retreat is a celebration of the sales achievements of these outstanding advisors,” said Melissa Wright, TRAVELSAVERS’ v.p., in a press release statement. “It’s also an ideal way for our consultants to gain firsthand knowledge of these destinations and travel styles so they can design even more exceptional vacations for their clients. Today’s travelers are asking for the same kind of distinctive experiences that TRAVELSAVERS’ top advisors enjoyed on this reward trip.”
The Making of an Elite Travel Advisor
The travel advisors who attended the Elite Retreat weren’t born selling travel. They gained knowledge and experience that made them successful, including by taking education courses that taught them the nuts and bolts of the industry—one such course is the KORE Travel Introductory Program.
The program launched almost two years ago and is made for new to industry, specifically those who are looking to make selling travel their career, says Kathryn Mazza-Burney, chief sales officer, The Affluent Traveler Collection (part of, like TRAVELSAVERS and KORE, American Marketing Group).
The course comes with a hefty fee, but as some agency owners we spoke to told us, it’s well worth the price tag. It takes about 130 hours to graduate, and those taking the course are vetted and invited.
Brooke Bodensteiner of Jet Set Travels is currently taking the KORE Travel Introductory Program, so we chatted with her to get a better understanding of what newbie travel advisors will gain from this in-depth course.
Recommend: What are your expectations with KORE?
Brooke Bodensteiner (BB): I was really excited to sharpen my business knowledge, and geography, and learn more about the travel industry as a whole at a more in-depth level. Specifically, I was never great at geography. This course helped me to understand this field better as it is separated into chapters that focus on specific areas around the world.
Recommend: How long do you think the whole platform will take you to complete?
BB: As I am a new-time momma with a crazy toddler now, my schedule is pretty hectic, but I expect to complete this within a year.
Recommend: Do you think once you finish KORE, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running?
BB: Absolutely, I believe this course is equipping me with all the knowledge I need to be a successful travel consultant. It also is giving me the confidence I need to be able to sell and run my business effectively and efficiently.
Recommend: Any challenges that you see with the education course?
BB: I experienced three challenges throughout the duration of this course. First, is the amount of material. I definitely was not prepared for the amount of material and worksheets that are incorporated into this one course. I underestimated this for sure. Secondly, I found some of the information in the course to be outdated. Specifically, I thought learning equations about the Greenwich Timezone and solving them and going super in-depth in this field was just not necessary, as I can go on Google within seconds and look up any specific time of any destination in the world. The third challenge for me was having this course be online. Personally, I am a person who does better learning in person, this made it difficult at times to stay focused and sit down and study. It would be easier for me to be in person learning rather than doing something online where I am not really engaging with others and having conversations around certain challenging topics. Because of this, I found it hard not being able to have a teacher in front of me to ask questions and students/peers around me to work with.
Recommend: I know KORE even goes into geography lessons and so forth — what are some of the more unexpected (maybe fun) modules you’ve run across while going through KORE?
BB: I love learning anything about business and social media. I took business marketing in college so whenever the course dove into these topics, you definitely found me the most excited and engaged.
Recommend: Also, when you mentioned you were interested in getting into travel, did Rudi [Brooke’s father and agency owner] say you need to take KORE or was it your idea? How did that conversation happen?
BB: When I mentioned getting into travel with my parents at their agency, my mom strongly recommended/basically told me that I would need to complete this course as she knew this would prepare me with the knowledge, resources and business practices necessary to be a successful travel agent in this current industry. I was very excited to start this course as I too believe that being properly trained and having strong credentials helps establish my credibility as an emerging travel agent.
