TDC Agents Are Special

G Adventures hosted 30 Transat Distribution Canada (TDC) owners and agents from across Canada to its interactive training program “Special Agent G” at its Toronto headquarters last weekend.

The program is intended to cultivate adventure specialists and to help break down any barriers that prevent agents from selling adventure travel.

Bruce PoonTip, CEO, G Adventures, said: “TDC has been one of our greatest partners in Canada. Their commitment to providing opportunities for their members to grow through programs like our special agent G reinforces our joint commitment.”

Poon Tip continued: “It was a revolutionary idea to take training to another level and we could not have done it without the support of such a great partnership. Thank you to all of our present and past graduates who inspire us to do great things every day. Without you, we’re nothing.”

The format on Saturday incorporated three morning sessions – What is Adventure Travel, G Product Training and Planeterra – the non- profit arm – and G for Good projects.

In the afternoon it was all about TDC owners and helping agents build their business through Social Media, Private Groups and Storytelling.

On the Sunday morning, the group was divided into 10 groups of 3 who took turns role playing as the agent, client and observer, with one member of the G or TDC team watching and providing coaching as they went through overcoming objections and selling strategies.

Then G Adventures CEO Bruce Poon Tip surprised the group with an hour long talk about the importance of the role of the travel agent.

Each agent walked away with an Adventure Specialist certificate to display to their clients.

Nathalie Boyer, general manager, TDC, participated throughout the weekend and closed the session by thanking everyone and reiterating the value of the partnership with G Adventures and how important it is for the group to put what they learned into action.

Each participant created a business plan and left them with TDC management and their G Adventures BDM to help ensure they get executed.

Said Boyer: “The Special Agent G training is highly effective. TDC conducts literally thousands of training opportunities throughout the year and this one is clearly one of the best. We applaud G Adventures for creating such an innovative approach.”