Swiss Travel training program from April 1

Switzerland Tourism, Swiss Travel System, and Rail Europe have launched the Swiss Travel Pass Superstar Program 2016 to promote brand awareness and enhance knowledge of various Swiss Travel Passes among the travel agents and tour operators in India. Ritu Sharma, Deputy Director & Media Manager- India, Switzerland Tourism, said, “Swiss Travel Pass Superstar program 2016 is meant for the travel agents and tour operators. It will be a 6 month program in which, every month, agents have to answer 10 questions and also sell maximum number of travel passes to stand a chance to win exciting prizes. Also travel agents will have to upload the number of travel passes being sold by them.  At the end of every month a winner will be announced and at the end of the six months there will be a grand winner. The top 30 performers will win a week long holiday to Switzerland which includes airfares, hotel stay, sightseeing, meals etc.” Sharma revealed this during a roadshow in Mumbai recently. In 2015 the program witnessed around 850 participants and this year Switzerland Tourism along with their partners expects double the number of participants than last year. The Switzerland tourism board also recorded a 21 per cent growth in 2015. The main thrust is to encourage agents to sell more travel passes with longer durations to customers. The minimum number of days is 3-4 and with this program agents are expected to sell travel passes for eight days so people enjoy longer stay in Switzerland. Switzerland tourism along with its partners will be doing training sessions in three other cities including Chandigarh, Delhi and Ahmedabad apart from Mumbai. India is the top source market for Switzerland. The country recorded 570,000 room nights for India excluding apartment stays, registering a 21.5% growth in 2015 over 2014. “The registration for the Swiss Travel Superstar will begin on March 1 and the agent training programme will kick start from April 1. The reason to open the registration one month before the commencement of the programme is to reach out to agents to inform them about the incentives and offers on becoming Swiss Specialist. The number of registrations last year were 850, and we expect this number to double in 2016,” said Kunal Kothari, Executive Director, Rail Europe. India was the first country where the Swiss Travel pass was introduced and after its success, Swiss Tourism launched it in the Gulf countries, South East Asia, China, Australia and Brazil, besides India.