On 25th September 2024, the Travel Village Group celebrated the official launch of its exciting new ‘River Cruise Academy’ at a welcome event in Manchester city centre.
Nine business owners from the Group’s Holiday Village division enrolled in the Academy earlier this year to enhance their knowledge of river cruising and expand their business opportunities within the sector.
The River Cruise Academy, spearheaded by Amanda Taylor, Business Development Manager, and Richard Cross, Group Commercial Manager, was conceived during CLIA’s River View Conference in Amsterdam earlier this year. Recognising the need for dedicated river cruise training, Taylor and Cross developed a comprehensive program designed to meet this demand.
Richard explained:
Amanda and I identified a unique opportunity to support our independent business owners in growing their river cruise expertise. We’re proud to have created the first-ever River Cruise Academy, which combines hands-on experience through FAM trips with in-depth classroom learning. We’re grateful to our supplier partners for their invaluable support and are excited to see how this initiative will drive business growth.
The Academy spans six months and includes a mix of in-person and virtual training sessions, two familiarisation trips onboard river cruises, and a graduation ceremony at CLIA’s River View 2025 event in Budapest. Participants will also have the opportunity to host their own river cruise events throughout the programme.
The launch event kicked off at Emerald & Scenic Cruises’ head office in Piccadilly, Manchester, where Amanda and Richard welcomed the delegates. Four immersive training sessions followed, featuring presentations from Emerald & Scenic Cruises, Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, APT Guided Tours & River Cruises, and AmaWaterways. Delegates gained valuable insights into each cruise line’s unique offerings and inclusions.
Dawn Quinn, representing Uniworld Boutique River Cruises, expressed her enthusiasm:
At Uniworld we’re so pleased to be working with so many new enthusiastic people within the Travel Village Group River Academy who want to increase their knowledge within this fantastic sector to support sales development. It’s exciting times ahead with Uniworld as a curator of boutique, ultra luxury holidays by land, river and rail throughout the world.
Wendi Hardy of Emerald & Scenic Cruises added:
It was a pleasure to host everyone for the launch of Travel Village Groups River Academy. What a great initiative and Scenic & Emerald Cruises are proud to be part of it.
Joanne Smithies, representing AmaWaterways, shared her excitement about the collaboration:
We’re delighted to support such a great initiative with The Travel Village Group! Having the opportunity to educate the River Cruise Academy members in such depth about the AmaWaterways product is so valuable. It was a really engaging afternoon, and the appetite and interest from the academy members to really grasp river and accelerate their sales is huge! I’m really looking forward to rest of the programme.
Robin Griffiths from APT added:
At APT we share the Holiday Village’s passion for developing and supporting the agent journey towards becoming experts in river cruising. We’re delighted to be part of their River Academy, and look forward to sharing that journey with them.
Initial Feedback
Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive. Delegates praised the informative sessions and expressed excitement about the Academy’s potential.
Joanna Parkin shared her thoughts:
It was a fabulous day. Very informative and it is going to help me significantly to sell the different river cruise brands on offer.
Kirsty Van Wyk added:
I am so excited to be part of this academy, and look forward to us all learning together and sharing our successes.
Jacqueline Davis echoed the sentiment:
It was a really fun and enjoyable day. I am looking forward to the rest of our time learning within our river cruise academy group and enjoying what is available to us all.
Amanda Taylor concluded:
We are delighted to be working with great suppliers who have supported our programme from the concept. They are committed to ensuring our business owners have all the tools necessary to fully understand not just River Cruising, but the the growth potential of this sector of the market. Everyone is eager to discover how they can introduce new and existing clients to the world of river cruising, and all it has to offer.
The Travel Village Group will be looking to launch further Training Academies in the future across other aspects of leisure travel. If you are interested in joining the 4th generation family business as an independent homeworker please contact Amanda Taylor on amanda@travelvillagegroup.com or visit our Careers page for further information.
