Tourism Australia relaunches Aussie Specialist Program

Tourism Australia has relaunched the awardwinning Aussie Specialist Program and made it easier for travel sellers around the world to gain the skills they need to better promote and sell Australia.

The Aussie Specialist Program, which is run in conjunction with Australia’s State and Territory Tourism Organisations, has been given a new look and feel in its 32nd year and the new program has greater personalisation, faster qualifying times and shorter more interactive training modules.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said the investment comes after many frontline travel sellers turned to the Aussie Specialist Program over the past 18 months to learn and position themselves as champions for Australian travel once borders re-open.

“Australia remains one of the most desirable travel destinations in the world and the Aussie Specialist Program helps to ensure we will be in the best possible position to convert travel demand into bookings as soon as borders re-open,” Harrison said.

“We now have more than 26,000 qualified Aussie Specialists worldwide and hope the new program will allow more agents to complete their learning so they too can best sell Australian tourism experiences.”

The improvements to the Aussie Specialist Program were made in conjunction with more than 400 stakeholders and 1,000 existing Aussie Specialist agents.

Tourism Australia South & South East Asia Regional General Manager, Brent Anderson said, “The Aussie Specialist Program is one of the world’s leading destination training programs. This refresh ensures it will continue to be a vital tool for travel sellers in South & South East Asia. During the pandemic, the program has also allowed us to continually engage with agents and the Australian industry, with the community created demonstrating enhanced skills and knowledge to lead the recovery for inbound tourism to Australia.”