Benchmarking study

This study has analysed the courseware offered by NTOs globally, and as a result, it has answered the next research questions:

Research Question 1: How many national destinations worldwide offer eLearning courses?

The study has shown a clear interest on the side of 75 National Tourism Organizations towards exploiting the opportunities presented by eLearning in order to provide travel agents and consultants with a comprehensive training option, while using ICTs for a proper training development of their travel trade partners.

Even if no extensive data is available, the very fact that in three years (2009 – 2012) online courses on a national level has doubled, suggests that NTOs are able to attract their intended audiences, hence fulfilling their marketing and educational goals. This means, on one hand, that destinations are developing B2B online activities to involve travel agents, thereby leveraging not only on the disintermediation (as in B2C websites), but also on the intermediation. On the other hand, the study suggests that NTOs also perceive themselves as training bodies, meeting the emerging needs of travel agents to find their benefit or unique selling point in the complex eTourism environment.

Research Question 2: How DMO eLearning courses are structured in terms of the used pedagogical strategies, online training content delivery and testing activities design?

Contents, methods and strategies of 75 available eLearning courses about tourism destinations have been assessed within this study. While looking at the content of the NTO’s eLearning courses, most of them are represented in specially designed learning modules covering general information about the destination, which includes geographical position, demographics, languages spoken, etc. Information on the history,

culture and traditions, accommodation and transportation systems as well as formality issues, such as visa, insurances, vaccinations, etc., is presented additionally in the online training modules. Furthermore, selling tips, along with the help of itinerary planning are also provided. In order to deliver a high-quality training experience, promotional videos and images, interactive maps along with the textual contents can be found. As a general practice, at the end of the course, after passing an evaluation exam, the learner receives a certificate of completion, which may then be displayed in the travel agency. Time needed to complete an eLearning course ranges from 40 minutes to 30 hours, with an average of 4 to 5 hours. Most of the courses offer a simple and straightforward navigation. All course developers have chosen self-study and objective tests as a strategy for course delivery, which shows low interactions and minimal (if any) assistance from the side of the destination. While for the most part the core audiences and basic contents remained the same as in 2009, three years later used media have improved, offering more interactive features as well as more advanced multimedia contents. No significant changes have been noticed though when it comes to human assistance available to learners. Most likely due to high cost of maintenance and constant support, eLearning courses are mainly designed as self-learning experiences and their development is outsourced from external companies.

3.5.2. Case studies

Case studies have answered the next research questions:

Research Question 3: How eLearning courses are structured in terms of the used pedagogical strategies, online training content delivery and testing activities design?

Theoretical investigation resulted in the presentation of two successful management cases of online trainings initiated by NTOs. Two case studies: Kiwi Specialist Program and Switzerland Travel Academy proposed the first understanding and evaluation of the pedagogical and technical strategies that have been used by those destinations for the online training creation.

Initially in both cases, destination managers have chosen a “passive” learning strategy with minimal involvement and interaction from the NTO side and among users who are attending training activities online. However, after the results of a thorough evaluation, TNZ is planning to change this strategy into a more “active” one, while expecting to enhance the training experience for travel agents with the new online training course. Additionally TNZ is expecting travel agents to repeat online training every two years in order to maintain their status and upgrade their knowledge about the destination they sell.

Research Question 4: How eLearning courses have been structured in terms of the employees involved, promotional strategies undertaken and performed in terms of the usages and budget spent?

Both eLearning courses have been initiated and are currently managed from the head offices, while the delivery, daily support to travel agents and incentives strategies are implemented within the respected offshore markets. In both cases platform management and delivery is not a primary activity of a destination in terms of the employees and the budgets involved. In both cases, an external company was responsible for the technical development of the training courses, while NTOs were providing them with the needed content and testing materials.

As for the presented training content, in case of Switzerland Travel Academy, the content is adapted for market needs and is aligned with the language preferences of the respected markets. Tourism New Zealand due to the scarcity of recourses didn’t adapt content and testing activities, which might make the overall performance not relevant in some training contexts.

Both presented destinations have done the minimum of integration of the certified travel agents into their marketing activities, and are planning to expand this in the future. In both cases offshore markets are responsible for the platform delivery and integration of the incentive strategies.

It should be mentioned that both destinations decided to keep the course open not only to the officially registered travel agents, but also to the end-client, media partners or hospitality and tourism students, hoping that it can become an additional marketing or sales tool.

The performance of the eLearning courses on different offshore markets varies significantly, which confirms different needs and structures of the travel trade markets globally, and should be addressed on a case-by-case basis. For instance, it has been revealed that not all the markets need to have an online training. An example of the Italian and Dutch market can be mentioned from the Switzerland Travel Academy case, where there was no need on such a platform development and integration due to the market structure and training needs.

Research Question 5: What motivates DMOs to develop eLearning courses for their travel trade partners?

Cases discussed within this study confirm that with the help of eLearning courses both destinations were able to achieve their internal goals in terms of the coordination and training of the trade partners globally.

Thanks to the interviews with the destination representatives, it can be concluded that the main motivation of a destination to have an online training is to have well-educated travel

agents who can actively sell the country as a tourism destination. Another key driver for the implementation of the eLearning platform is that with its help any tourism destination can enhance educational opportunities globally. This “accessibility” issue enables tourism destinations to upscale agents in the areas that are not easily physically reachable and where an NTO does not have active market representatives. Such training options can be very successful in geographically dispersed countries (e.g. Russia, USA or Canada), where market representatives are not able visit in order to deliver in-presence training, while with the help of technologies destination training become accessible to every travel agent.

According to the interviewed NTO representatives, online training courses can be very helpful for travel agents in order to improve their capability to plan, promote and sell high quality holidays to a destination they are interested in. Additionally, online training courses can give credibility to travel agents in the eyes of potential tourists, as they are officially certified by a credible institution, such as a ministry of tourism. So then clients may have confidence that travel agents know the destination they are selling well and potentially have made a trip to a destination themselves.

Though in order to give an opportunity to travel trade to learn about and engage with the destination, NTOs need to compliment an eLearning course with other training activities and various facets, such as familiarization trips, webinars and road shows.

Chapter 4: Analysis of the demand side: travel agents’ perceptions and motivations