Following the results of the evaluation activities, which were undertaken in 2010 and 2011 – usability test and online questionnaire of the offshore travel agents accordingly, the decision on the “Kiwi Specialist Program” overall redevelopment and training experience redesign has appeared. The new eLearning course has been launched in June 2013. It is expected that undertaken changes of the online training program will deliver a more engaging training experience to New Zealand sellers offshore and will encourage them to sell more tourism and hospitality products of New Zealand. It is also expected that the new training program will attract more agents to the training on all the markets where TNZ is present. Additionally, it is predicted that it will be easier to maintain the status for travel agents with less complex expiry dates.
TNZ is currently designing a thorough communication plan in order to deliver the message of the future changes to the users, especially to those who have been interacting with online training for a long time. The information about eLearning course adjustments will be sent to all travel agents who have subscribed to the course, as well as to the industry partners, regional tourism organizations and other involved stakeholders.
Media trade reports (eGlobaltrademedia, 2013; Travelbizmonitor, 2013;
Traveldailynews, 2013) have already appeared in international journals in order to prepare travel agents for this change.
The overall corporate identity of the training will be changed, as well as the new online training offer will be renamed as “100% Pure New Zealand Specialist”, in order to identify it more precisely as a New Zealand Program and in keeping with TNZ’s overall branding. Moreover, the graphic design of the platform and the logo will be adapted as well. The new logo of the eLearning course and the print screens from “100% Pure New Zealand Specialist Program” can be seen in the Appendices 5 and 7.
i) Technical implementation
From the cost to benefit ratio TNZ made a decision on installing a readymade Learning Management System (LMS), instead of creating a new training program from scratch, while implementing a new training course. The new LMS is called TOTARA (www.totaralms.com), which customizes Moodle developments for corporate needs and integrates advanced user management profiles. TOTARA is an open source LMS, which allows hosting, tracking and reporting of online learning and teaching. Training content will be created within the TOTARA functionalities or by launching SCORM objects (e.g. using Articulate Storyline HTML5). TOTARA LMS has a device-detection on the access, which enables a mobile theme to be applied for tablets and phone users.
Technically modules were developed in eLearning software “Articulate Storyline”
(www.articulate.com/products/studio.php), which is used to create interactive online learning modules. The tool produces Flash output with HTML5 alternative fallback, using Javascript feature detection.
As current online training “Kiwi Specialist Program” is able to give very limited reporting data on the usages, the new platform has been designed for this reason as well.
The eLearning system will be able to provide different reports on the eLearning course performance and the behaviour of the users, e.g. users subscribed and those who passed the test; where users are dropping out; how much time do they spend on each training module and on the course in general. The analysis of the results of the eLearning performance might help the developers and destination representatives in understanding if any modifications and adjustments to the new eLearning course should be done in the future (e.g. the length of the training models).
ii) Creation of training content and evaluation activities
Current online training course has been designed for a passive learner, where the user needs to read present content modules and then answer a number of evaluation questions. Moreover, it has been perceived as a rather “text heavy one”. Moreover, the usability study, undertaken in 2010, has shown that a very high number of learners actually were looking for answers with the help of Search Engine (e.g. Google), instead of following online training.
The new training modules will be structured in a completely different way and as such will take a different learning path. The new modules were fundamentally redesigned in order to make them more visually engaging and captivating, fun and easy to complete.
They will force travel agents to use training modules, as they will receive evaluation questions along the way, and then will be assessed at the very end. The assessment at the end can actually affirm that travel agents have learned something about the destination New Zealand and its particularities. eLearning developers believe that the new modules will become a more interactive and engaging training tool.
The content of the new online training will be redesigned as well. The first “Introductory module” will be divided into two training parts and will present the main selling tips for travel agents. The first one is called “An introduction to New Zealand” and will give a general overview of the country. While the second one is called “Practical information”
and will present the next data: which objects and products tourist can’t bring to the country; what weather condition to expect from certain seasons, driving rules in New Zealand, etc. Nine additional modules will cover all geographical regions in New Zealand. Furthermore, the template for the new regional modules will be changed as well. The information will be presented in the way of “10 hot spots for every region”,
that will show key selling points. As regional representatives know their local tourism product best, they were asked to provide the head office with information on the best things to see and to do for potential tourists in their regions. Four modules on special interests will be provided as well e.g. “Skiing”, “Cruising”, “Hiking” and “Luxury travel”. The new training modules will be shortened so that they will take from thirty to forty-five minutes to complete. The new approach will be undertaken also in the evaluation activities for travel agents based in China. As a general strategy, TNZ is looking to push Chinese tourists to travel to the Southern island as well, so most probably the number of mandatory modules for Chinese agents will increase from five to ten and will cover all regions in New Zealand.
iii) Specialist status
All the technical details and historical records from the previous eLearning course such as registration and login details, module completion, certification, etc. will be transferred over to the new system, so that the users will maintain their previous status. Generally, the criteria to maintain the status of a New Zealand Specialist will be reduced in order to make it easier for the agents to stay in the program, once they initially qualified for the status. An agent will be required to complete ten training modules in order to qualify for
“100% Pure New Zealand Specialist”. Additionally to maintain their status, travel agents will need to complete two additional modules in the following two years.
As for the trip to New Zealand, an agent will still need to make a trip to the country, but it will be valid for a lifetime. Furthermore, an agent will need to attend any other additional training session organized by the market representatives, which can be a face-to-face training or a webinar. In order to maintain the status such training should be undertaken every two years. In case if there is no training offered in the market that an agent works for, then TNZ will addresses this issue on a case-by-case basis. For instance, TNZ can decide on making an agent a “100% Pure New Zealand Specialist” if they see that an agent is a dedicated seller of New Zealand as a tourism destination.
iv) Incentives and benefits
TNZ head office is planning to expand the range of benefits and incentives (e.g. gadgets and merchandising) which travel agents receive while successfully finishing online training courses. This is done in order to keep those agents who have already subscribed to be more motivated and excited to sell New Zealand as well as to attract and encourage new agents.
v) Evaluation activities
According to Bjoern Spreitzer, Business Development Manager of New Zealand Tourism Board:
“Pilot testing of the new online modules in Australia has been done in late 2012.
Responses so far have been very positive and the feedback has been reviewed to continue refining the programme ready for its anticipated rollout in June 2013”
(eGlobaltrademedia, 2013).
Similar responses were received from the pilot testing activities that were undertaken on the American and the Chinese markets. According to both interviewed market representatives, travel agents believe that the new online training is fun and rather engaging, which gives positive prerequisites for the growth of the passing numbers in the near future.
3.5. Conclusions
The next paragraph presents conclusions out of two research steps, which describe the
“supply side” of the destinational eLearning on offer. Firstly, the conclusions of the benchmarking study (sub-chapter 3.5.1.) of all available national eLearning courses about tourism destinations are presented, featuring the answers to Research Question 1 and Research Question 2.
Then the conclusions from the case studies with Tourism New Zealand and Swiss National Tourism Office are presented in the sub-chapter 3.5.2, answering Research Question 3, Research Question 4 and Research Question 5.