The Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) India, launched the Online Travel Training Programme titled – ‘Dubai Expert’. This programme is aimed at enhancing the knowledge and expertise of the travel trade partners enabling them to be better equipped to promote and sell Dubai as a destination.
‘Dubai Expert’ is a DTCM Head office driven program but controlled locally by each representative office. This online training programme has 3 distinct courses – ‘Know Dubai ’, ‘Sell Dubai’ and ‘Add Dubai’ with several learning modules within each course. At the end of each module there are simple quizzes designed to provide a sequential learning curve to the travel partner with each module/course becoming more intensive as one progresses further. There is an online registration process which requires a moderator’s approval to authenticate the applicant and the respective Company.
The Dubai Expert Launch was attended by around 300 members from the travel trade industry. Travel partners such as Emirates Airlines, Indigo Airlines, Dubai Visa Processing Centre – VFS Global, Dubai Visa and Marhaba Services and Cox and Kings Marhaba Dubai Visa supported the event.
Benefits of completing the training are that post completion of the programme; an individual is certified as a ‘Dubai Expert’ and for every 10 people from an organization that successfully complete the programme, the agency/company gets certified as a whole. Besides, there are suite of rewards such as FAM trips, a free Dubai update newsletter, events and tradeshow support and the inclusion of the Dubai Expert logo as a marketing tool in one’s mails.
Commenting on the benefit of the online training programme, Mr. Carl Vaz, Director, DTCM – India said, “’Dubai Expert’ is a fun, informative yet easy to complete online training programme for travel specialists. It will help to ramp up the knowledge, sales skill and expertise of ‘Brand Ambassadors’ who can promote Dubai which will help attract more visitors to Dubai. It is the intention of the India office to add travel partners such as Dubai hotels, resorts, Dubai/UAE/Indian airlines (full service and LLC) and global cruise operators to the rewards and booking program. By the end of 2011 we intend to have over 500 active applicants for this free training programme. I would encourage travel professionals to register for this programme and reap the benefits of increased bookings and satisfied customers.”
Mr. Carl Vaz, also added, "India today exhibits exponential growth for inward visitor traffic into Dubai. A large segment of Indian visitors utilize hotels and hotel apartments in the Emirate making India the top source market. In 2010, there were 638,100 Indian travelers that stayed in Dubai’s hotel and hotel apartments, representing an annual growth rate of 21% as compared to 529,500 Indian travelers in 2009. In 2011 there were 186,477 Indian travelers in the first quarter that stayed in Dubai’s hotel and hotel apartments, representing a growth of 10% from over 169,084 Indian travelers in the first quarter of 2010.”