With more than 1 billion international trips each year, the travel industry offers travel professionals excellent business opportunities. This course will help you take advantage of these opportunities by improving your skills in supervising and managing people and by building business relationships based on win-win negotiating strategies. Learn how to be competitive by developing new products and market them effectively. You will also gain insight on agency accounting procedures to build business plans that lead to good financial health.
Objectives
- Upon completion of this course you will be able to:
- Increase your opportunity for career advancement
- Become entrepreneurial and creative
- Open your own travel agency or tour company
- Grow your business and profits
- Improve operational processes
Target audience
- Agency administration
- Mid-level managers and supervisors
- Agency back-office personnel
- Travel Managers
- Students/graduates Bachelor & Master in Tourism
- Key topics
- Managerial and negotiation skills
- Marketing and pricing
- Tour production and event planning
- Administration and accounting
- Laws related to the travel industry
Course format
This course requires approximately 120 hours of study to be completed in 12 months from the purchase date (enrollment validity). After the enrollment validity expires, the users will not have access to the course content and will not be able to take the exam. Student performance will be based on an examination.
Exam information
- Exam Method: Online exam with remote supervision
- Exam Format: Multiple Choice questions. Closed Textbook; Foldout Maps are not permitted
- Number of questions: 80
- Time Allowance: 2 hours
- Passing Grade: 60%
- Distinction Grade: 85% ▪ Number of exam attempts: 2
Table of contents
- Managerial skills
- The supervisory role
- Planning for performance
- Communicating effectively
- Managing performance
- Motivation, de-motivation and inspiration
- Leading the team
- Negotiation skills
- Understanding when/what to negotiate
- The seven elements of negotiation
- Requests for information/ quotation/ proposal
- Special-interest travel and tour production
- Special-interest tours
- Eco-tours
- Inclusive-tour production for special-interest groups
- Tour negotiation: Air/land/water components
- Sales terms and conditions explained
- Travel safety
- Corporate event and meeting management
- The event and meeting customer
- Basic event or meeting components
- The workflow in planning
- Agency financial management and accounting
- Finance and business planning
- Bookkeeping and financial administration
- Business planning, budgeting and reporting
- Analysis, management and assessment
- Reporting and remitting agency sales
- Marketing travel
- Marketing in travel
- Marketing principles, practices, and processes
- Marketing management and the marketing plan
- Market and marketing research
- Market research and analysis
- Customer and client focus, branding and competitive advantage
- The marketing mix
- Marketing in the digital age
- Technology in the travel industry
- Information technology in the travel industry
- Social media strategy
- Managing travel apps and their social applications and implications for travel agents
- The flow of information through the agency systems
Practical information
Self-study
The Covid period has taught us how comfortable it can be to work from home and we are happy to build on this momentum. So no travelling, taking leave or endless evenings attending classes: the IATA course is offered to you completely online. This allows you to learn the course at your own pace and rhythm, wherever and whenever you want. No group lessons are organised, either physically or online. For any practical questions, you can of course always contact us. Good to know: the courses are very clearly structured, which makes self-study much easier. After each theoretical chapter, you immediately get the chance to put this into practice by simulating your chosen GDS. All learning material is described in great detail and each chapter ends with numerous repetitions.
Start
You start whenever you wish and choose your own exam time. Note: from the moment you are enrolled, you have one year for all this. Keep that deadline in mind!
Exam
IATA provides 6 exam moments per year specifically: in January, March, May, July, September and November. Usually, the exam is scheduled in the last week of these months and always takes place digitally. This can be done at our Mechelen campus or from home.
Cost price
The cost price varies per course. Under 'how to register' you will find the link to register online. When you do this, you will get the overview of the prices of the different courses.
Thomas More students and Thomas More alumni (max 2 years after graduation) enjoy a discount. This has already been taken into account in the registration link. Each time, you can opt for an e-book or for a printed version, in which case shipping costs will be charged. The price also includes 2 exam moments each time.
