New Initiative Aims to Increase Awareness of the Caribbean Region Through Travel Trade Relationships
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (November 13, 2024) – The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) has unveiled its Caribbean Travel Specialist Program, a groundbreaking initiative designed to heighten awareness of the Caribbean region within the extensive travel trade network while enhancing visitors’ travel experiences.
In partnership with taCONNECT and My Booking Rewards (MBR), CHTA is paving the way for seamless connections with Caribbean travel trade specialists. Through these partnerships, CHTA members gain access to discounted services, facilitating invaluable connections with thousands of travel advisors in major source markets. With taCONNECT, the focus will be on developing relationships with their travel advisor network in North America, while MBR will concentrate on the UK and European markets.
CHTA Immediate Past President Nicola Madden-Greig, OD, expressed her enthusiasm for the program, stating, “The Certified Caribbean Travel Specialist Program reflects our commitment to providing travel advisors with the tools and resources they need to confidently promote the Caribbean as a premier destination to their clients. Each destination is diverse and unique, with its own distinct personality, culture, cuisine, and authentic experiences. Having the knowledge and expertise to sell not only one but also multi-destination travelis integral. We aim to ensure that travel advisors are experts in the Caribbean region, recommending curated itineraries that showcase the immense beauty, wealth of activities and experiences throughout the region.”
The Caribbean Travel Specialist Program will empower travel advisors to deepen their understanding of the Caribbean’s diverse offerings, enabling them to provide travelers with unparalleled vacation experiences. Travel advisors who participate in the program will have access to offers, benefits, and other rewards, such as FAM trip opportunities; invitations to CHTA’s annual trade event, Caribbean Travel Marketplace, and rewards for logging bookings through My Booking Rewards.
taCONNECT, a travel trade data solutions and sales & marketing platform, will oversee the expansion of its database of travel advisors to establish a robust group of Caribbean specialists for regular communication. Furthermore, taCONNECT will offer special travel trade sales and marketing packages to CHTA members.
Shaun Whitley, taCONNECT’s co-founder, remarked: “I am confident that taCONNECT will provide effective trade support to CHTA and its members. According to our taNETWORK, the industry’s largest sourcing of specialty information on travel advisors, the Caribbean is the number one region with about 94,790 Verified Travel Advisor specialists, representing approximately $47.1 billion in sales. This presents significant market potential.”
My Booking Rewards (MBR), a global incentive, loyalty, and training platform equips suppliers with white-label programs to reach its 64,000 engaged agents across Europe, Latin America, and North America, converting lookers to bookers with appealing rewards and training incentives. MBR’s platform includes a full reporting and CRM suite for suppliers, and for agents, easy-to-use training modules, webinars, and a resource center of fact sheets and imagery, all designed to help boost their sales potential.
Darren Pearson, Founder and CEO of My Booking Rewards, stated: “We are delighted to be supporting the CHTA to engage more agents in their chosen markets. Our agile technology and the engaged database will help them to reach more active booking agents, building meaningful relationships through education and incentivization.” MBR is also offering CHTA members preferred loyalty and marketing programs to build their agent relationships.
For more information about the Certified Caribbean Travel Specialist Program, please visit http://caribbeanagentsrewards.com/ (My Booking Rewards) or https://www.taconnect.net/agent/CHTA (taCONNECT).
For hotels interested in learning more about the program, contact CHTA at membership@caribbeanhotelandtourism.com.