President's Podium: The Rise of Professionalism

Dear Members,

It has been over a year since the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies (ACTA) acquired the Canadian Institute of Travel Counselors (CITC) and adopted professional certification. As I take a moment to reflect i've got to say it was the right thing to do and the industry is better off.

The past year has proven that the industry is on board with supporting professionalism and it is showing through the increase in the number of Travel Professionals who have enrolled in the program and are working towards their professional designations of Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) and Certified Travel Manager (CTM).

Since ACTA acquired CITC, professional designations have increased by 17% while new enrollments are over 30 times what they were last year. Christine Chilton, CTM and former CITC Operations Manager and current Director of Education for ACTA commented to me recently that, "As employees we have been rejuvenated by this new energy working within the ACTA organization."

Outside of the numbers ACTA Education has celebrated many milestones. First, under ACTA, the CTC and CTM exam and curriculum was updated to better represent today's travel agent. With the development of technology within the Travel Industry Central Reservations system and the introduction to e-commerce we had to acknowledge the fact that the times are changing and that we must change with the times.

Second, ACTA Regional Managers have been working diligently to reconnect with Travel and Tourism schools to get on a first name basis with the educators who teach them. Our success with this is measurable through the fact that all our Regional Managers have held "student talks" at the schools within their province.

In May, ACTA hosted an Educator's Conference where the collaboration was so valuable it led to the rebirth of the Student Conference where in early November of this year, ACTA will host hundreds of Travel and Tourism students for a gathering in Toronto. This conference will help us promote our industry as a valuable career option. It will introduce the leaders of our industry to travel and tourism students that represent the future of our trade in Canada. It is an opportunity for us all to educate on product, branding, and discuss employment opportunities with perspective future employees.

All this success in a short period of time could not of been accomplished without the support of our membership and their belief that professionalism through certification will benefit the industry overall. ACTA's recent successes in education is because of you and we thank you for your support.

Sincerely

Questions or comments? Email me @ dmccaig@acta.ca