That was one of the key findings of a survey of 1,000 agent members conducted by Online Travel Training (OTT) in conjunction with data analysis and consumer insight specialist Spike on a range of training-related topics.

Speaking at an event hosted by OTT – What makes travel agents sell your products and destinations? – Roy Barker, director at Spike Marketing, said: “Most courses are incentivised – it’s very positive to hear that when we looked at our data, 77% of under-45s would still take a course even if it wasn’t incentivised, and 86% of over-45s.”

Overall, 91% of agents said product training helped them increase sales, with 74% preferring online to other training formats such as face-to-face. The research found that despite nearly 60% of those surveyed having worked in the travel industry for nine years or more, they remained keen to keep their product knowledge up to date; 90% said it was down to them to keep up to speed.

Julia Feuell, founder of OTT, said the survey results showed agents saw “real value” in such education. “The majority are still keen to update their knowledge, boosting their confidence and sales,” she said. Vital product knowledge Some 89% of agents said they had taken part in at least one OTT course, while 94% said online training was “very important” as a source of product knowledge; most ranked online training higher than events and personal recommendations in terms of usefulness.

Feuell said the popularity of online training could be explained by the demographics of the 1,000 agents surveyed – 71.7% were female, with most falling into the 35-44 and 45-54 age ranges. “It’s likely that these members live very busy lives,” she said.

“Even for the most experienced agents, it seems that the days of learning opportunities taking place over long lunches are coming to an end, with a shift to training which they can undertake at their own desks.”

The majority of participants were independents, while the size of organisations most likely to use such tools were larger companies with more than 200 employees. When respondents were asked how likely they were to recommend a brand to a friend or colleague, OTT was ranked highly, with a Net Promoter Score (an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the customers’ willingness to recommend a company’s products) of 64.6.

Jennie Carr, creative and communications director at Silver Travel Advisor, told TTG she was heartened to see that training was considered so important by the industry as a whole. “It was positive to note that [training] is seen as an element of being professional and good for career progression.

“Online training is so successful as it allows users easy access whenever and wherever they like. It is useful in giving short bursts of information and raising awareness for trainees quickly. It complements other training, such as fam trips and classroom sessions really well.”