NY bets big on Indian agents
NYC & Company will launch a more comprehensive version of its online programme in 2014. With this, the organisation is looking to increase its agents enrolled in the programme to 4,000.
New York City’s tourism and marketing organisation, NYC & Company is betting big on educating the Indian travel trade. The organisation will launch the new version of its online training academy in 2014 to facilitate the training of Indian travel agents as well. This was revealed by Fred Dixon, Executive Vice President- Market Development, NYC & Company. “This year, the primary goal is to educate the travel trade in India. Hence, we have an online training academy and its new interactive version will become operational in 2014. Currently, we have 2,000 travel agents across India enrolled in the programme. Around 1,000 have graduated to become New York specialists. We are expecting the number to double from 2,000 to 4,000 by the end of 2014. This might be a little ambitious, but with the new training programme that we launch, this might get easier to achieve,” Dixon pointed out. The details of the pro- gramme are still being worked out. It will focus on neighbourhoods of NYC, things to do, shopping zones, attractions, lesser-known places of NYC, etc.
Being active in the Indian market for seven years now, NYC & Company has seen a transformation in the mix of travellers it receives. “In the past, the number of business travellers was always higher than the leisure travellers in NYC. This changed for the first time last year when the leisure traveller segment surpassed the business travel segment. Going forward, leisure and MICE are the big avenues. As the rupee stabilises and the economy recovers, incentive groups will become a huge opportunity for NYC,” he observed.