May 17th-19th, KHM Travel Group welcomed 40 travel agents for the host agency’s second Boot Camp event of the year.
Boot Camp is designed to give new travel agents the knowledge, tools, and confidence they need to develop their travel businesses. Experienced agents who were with another host agency, or were previously independent can also benefit from getting to know KHM Travel Group, our values, and our operations.
Each Boot Camp kicks off at our corporate office with introductions of KHM Travel’s staff, including our executive team. Although agents may have spoken to one of us over the phone, or via email, it’s always nice to put faces to names!
“The knowledge that I gained was what I needed to get my business up and running,” said KHM Travel Agent Mervin. “The staff was passionate about what they were teaching, and you will never find that online.”
Our team filled the rest of the day with valuable training sessions to help agents develop a business, build on their past and passion, become familiar with myTravelCRM and begin marketing themselves. Each agent had the opportunity to have a professional headshot taken, in addition to our group photo.
They even left with homework – to create a 30-second commercial for their travel business!
Once they returned back to the host hotel, they had the chance to relax and just mingle at a social hour sponsored by Norwegian Cruise Line.
On Day 2, the agents dug deeper into the sales process with two sessions with Marie and Chantelle from our Agent Development Team, and Industry Affairs Specialist Bill.
We were fortunate to have lunch sponsored by Carnival Cruise Lines, plus a session with one of our favorite Business Development Managers, Chris Schutz from Carnival. The cruise theme kept sailing on into the afternoon with a hands-on workshop for cruise bookings. Marie and KHM Travel’s President/CEO Rick Zimmerman wrapped up the day with everyone’s favorite topic — compliance!
On Day 3, agents got an overview of Travel Leaders Network, which is the consortium to which KHM Travel Group belongs. The goal is to give agents an understanding of all the additional educational resources, marketing tools and technology they have access to because of our partnership with Travel Leaders Network.
Lunch that day was sponsored by another one of our Preferred Suppliers, The Mark Travel Corporation. Before lunch, Jennifer Greenfield and Cheryl Hudak from Mark Travel provided agents with the highlights of their brands: Funjet Vacations, Southwest Vacations, Blue Sky Tours and United Vacations.
Bill and Chantelle complemented Mark Travel’s session with a hands-on booking workshop for land travel. Boot Camp wrapped up that afternoon with a question and answer panel featuring experienced agents, and then a discussion of how to create a positive client experience.
“You receive information that you can’t get from a book and learn things from those who have been doing the job for years,” said agent Valencia. “As a new agent, I feel I now confident to start booking and it is because Boot Camp is my foundation. I also gained some awesome friends and a support system.”
View more photos of the fun from our May Boot Camp in our Flickr album!
Registration is now open for our next Boot Camp in August! Visit TravelAgentMeeting.com for more details and to secure your spot.
Our New Agent Boot Camp is just one of the many opportunities available to KHM Travel Agents. We invest our time into developing the best travel agent education, tools and support to give agents the knowledge and confidence needed to build successful businesses.
For our free Travel Agent Information Guide that will answer your questions about starting your independent travel agency, fill out the form on the right or call 1-888-611-1220.