The Destination Wedding and Honeymoon Specialists Association in September will start offering an introductory course for travel advisors interested in learning the basics of booking destination weddings.
The course will be $10, a reduced cost thanks to a partnership with AIC Hotel Group, whose properties include the Unico 20°87° in Mexico's Riviera Maya, the Eden Roc in Miami Beach and four Hard Rock resorts in Mexico and one in Punta Cana.
The courses will go over the typical yearlong workflow for most destination wedding groups, including room block contracts, ceremony planning and building client relationships post-trip. The course includes three hourlong lessons, handouts and resources for U.S. and Canadian advisors. The lessons will happen on Zoom on three consecutive Wednesdays in September. Those calls will be recorded and available to access through Dec. 31.
Also, the association plans to set up a Facebook group for the advisors taking the course.
The featured instructors are all DWHSA members: Cheryl Bailey of Yellow Umbrella Events, Nancy Barkley of Honeymoons and Get-A-Ways, Elsa Davis of Signature Weddings Away/ESD Travels, Kim Goldstein of Journeys Inc., Suzanne Haire of TravelAgentSuz, and Tami Santini of Paradise Getaways.
"Growing the romance travel segment by encouraging more advisors to give this niche a try is a huge part of our mission," DWHSA executive director John Hawks said.