Travel Agents to get Virtual Training

Costa Cruises intends to host virtual reality ship tours and training sessions for travel agents in the UK, according to reports.

The Italian cruise operator will use the virtual world, Second Life, to conduct online classes, presentations and press conferences.

The company's ship, Costa Serena, was launched along with a cruise terminal in Second Life in May. It now has a room within it that will serve as a virtual classroom.

Daniele Mancini, Costa Cruises corporate e-business director, commented that the firm plans to use the virtual world to train travel agents in Costaclick, its trade booking tool.

"Second Life is a medium, a social network and it does not cost a lot. It's a few thousand Euros which is very cheap compared with newspaper advertising," she told TravelMole.

She added that agents will be taken on virtual ship tours in Second Life, seeing the ship as it looks in the real world and to the same scale.

The Costa Serena began sailing from Venice to Greece, Turkey and Croatia in the summer, and departs for a winter trip from Savona to the canary Islands.

Travel Industry News posted on 26/09/2007 08:00:14