The team behind the New Deal Europe Marketplace and Forum, the only travel trade event dedicated to the entire Balkans region of Europe, have announced an exclusive partnership with Online Travel Training (OTT), the market leader in providing interactive online training for travel agents.

The partnership deal, agreed this week, gives destinations and tourism providers in the Balkans and South East Europe unrivalled direct access to 200,000 travel agents in 8 countries and the opportunity to try the service on a free trial basis for the rest of 2021.

Tine Murn, Director and co-founder of New Deal Europe, announcing the deal, said, “I worked with OTT when I was a tourism board director in London, and I know that they deliver results. Their training programmes are easy to design and just as easy for the travel agents to access, and they really allow agents to gain an insight into what the New Deal Europe destinations have to offer. I’m delighted that we have this opportunity to put the Balkans and South East Europe front and centre in every travel agency.”

OTT delivers on line destination and product training to travel agents, and is the most popular way for agents to gain product knowledge. The flexibility of the system allows agents to learn whenever and wherever they want, even on the move via mobile phones and tablet. The travel related businesses using the training tool includes tour operators, independent homeworkers, cruise specialists, MICE agents, leisure agents and many more. It is used by all the major tourist boards, airlines, tour operators and tourism associations to get their key product messages out to the travel agent community.

Kenny Smith, Global Partnerships Manager of OTT said, “We want to develop the Balkans in partnership with New Deal Europe, as it is a recognised brand associated with the Balkan region in the minds of the travel community. We have worked with many of the Balkan destinations and suppliers individually. However, this collaboration brings this wonderful region together and is a great step forward in aiding the kickstart of travel after the pandemic.”

The free trial is a key element of the deal. Robert Dee, co-founder of New Deal Europe commented, “This partnership allows the greater Balkan region to showcase what it can offer directly to the key influencers in tourism – the travel agents. It will give the agents the confidence to book this emerging, but relatively unknown, area of Europe. I would encourage everyone in the region to take advantage of the free trial we have negotiated. Travel agents are looking for something new and something close to home, and this delivers on all fronts. Once you see the benefits from your first educational module with OTT then I’m sure you will want to develop more.”

In the last month alone OTT had 1.8 million minutes of engagement by global travel agents. Once the free trial period is over, OTT claim that an agent can be trained on the product in 8 minutes for less than 1 USD. With many agents now working remotely, they have seen record engagement in the last 12 months, and have invested over EUR 1 million in developing their global platform.

“OTT is the market leader and is still expanding” said Murn. “With the growing interest in our region and the expansion of flights to a number of destinations, this is the perfect time to launch this partnership. We are excited to be able to help our partners in the Balkans region develop their business and welcome new tourists.”

 

New Deal Europe is the only travel market platform dedicated to generating business to the Greater Balkan region of Europe. Visit www.newdealeurope.com for more information. Next event: Global Travel Week: globaltravelweek.com, September 2021.

Read New Deal Europe Weekly Update on Tourism to the Balkan Region at newdealeuropeblog.medium.com and follow us at https://www.linkedin.com/company/newdealeurope for latest news and announcements.