Brand USA Launches New Travel Agent Initiatives
USA Discovery Program incentive announced alongside new USA Tool Kit
Brand USA has today announced three new initiatives specifically for the travel trade, including a USA Discovery Program incentive for agents in the UK & Ireland, a brand new global .com site, and plans for an online USA Tool Kit.
The incentive has been launched on the UK version of the USA Discovery Program, Brand USA’s official travel agent training platform for the United States of America. Members simply need to earn any five badges of their choice on the site to be entered into a prize draw where one lucky USA specialist winner will receive return flights to anywhere in the USA with American Airlines and British Airways, as well as a state-of-the-art GoPro camera.
The competition aims to draw new users to the award-winning training platform, as well as engage existing users ahead of the holiday period. Three runners up will also receive GoPro cameras in the prize draw and the incentive will run from 10 November – 15 December, with winners announced the week before Christmas.
To coincide with the incentive period, five brand new badges will launch on the site to ensure all members can enter the competition. These new bespoke partner badges are:
- Enterprise Holdings, Inc.
- Florida’s Paradise Coast (including Naples, Marco Island, Everglades)
- North Dakota Department of Commerce
- Texas Tourism
- Universal Studios Hollywood
Each badge provides an overview of the destination, product and attraction, with in-depth sections focusing on accommodations, food and drink, nightlife, must see/must do experiences, as well as new rides and car hire locations. The new badges will join a host of existing ‘Extra Learning’ material available on the site, as well as 10 experiential specialist badges, including Music, Culture & Heritage, Fly-Drive and the Great Outdoors, bringing the total number of badges modules available to earn on the site to 33.
The USA Discovery Program is currently live in-language across seven countries, (Australia, Brazil, China, India, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK), with new sites launching in Germany, Mexico and South Korea in 2017. To enable at-desk training for agents across the globe where the in-market platform does not yet exist, a brand new global site has also been launched. The site, housed at www.USADiscoveryProgram.com, can be used by all travel professionals to enhance their knowledge of the USA as a premier holiday destination, encouraging further bookings to the United States globally.
In further travel trade developments, plans have been unveiled for a USA Trip Kit on the new Brand USA consumer website due for launch this month. The bespoke section has been built specifically for travel professionals and will provide imagery, helpful travel information tips, as well as itinerary suggestions to supplement those already available on the USA Discovery Program.
Brand USA Chief Marketing Officer, Thomas Garzilli, said, “The USA Discovery Program continues to inspire agents across the globe and our aim is to provide them with the knowledge they need to sell the USA as a premier holiday destination. Our goal is to deliver as much easy-to-access information to agents as possible to assist them in driving more bookings to the United States on our behalf and to enable us to reach our goal of 100 million visitors to the USA by 2021.”
To become a qualified USA Specialist, agents in the UK & Ireland should visit USADiscoveryProgram.co.uk.
For more information about travel experiences and destinations in the United States, visit VisitTheUSA.co.uk.
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About Brand USA
Brand USA is the nation’s destination marketing organization, dedicated to attracting legitimate international inbound travel to strengthen the U.S. economy, increase exports, create quality jobs, and promote community prosperity. By running data-driven campaigns and unifying messaging across industry and government, Brand USA positions the United States as a top global destination while providing current visa and entry information.
Since 2012 Brand USA, in collaboration with travel industry partners, has been responsible for attracting an additional 10.3 million visitors who spent nearly $35 billion in the United States, generating $76 billion in economic output, and sustaining nearly 40,000 jobs per year. Without any cost to taxpayers, these efforts have generated $10 billion in tax receipts and returned $20 to the U.S. economy for every dollar spent.