CCTE at Sea Takes Place Onboard Royal Caribbean’s Brand-New Liberty of the Seas
Caleb Tiller , +1 703-684-0836, ext. 138
Alexandria, VA and Miami, FL (May 15, 2007) – The National Business Travel Association (NBTA), the leading provider of education and resources to the corporate travel industry, this week hosts a Certified Corporate Travel Executive (CCTE) program course onboard one of the world’s most imaginative maritime marvels – Royal Caribbean International’s Liberty of the Seas. Participants are taking a “cruise to nowhere” sailing out of Miami onboard the latest addition to Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines’ fleet, from May 14-16. Onboard the ship, they are taking a CCTE course entitled Taking on the Strategic Meetings Management Challenge: Guidelines for Travel Managers.
The session is specifically designed for travel managers to understand the key activities that will put their company on the road to implementing a strategic meeting management program. The workshop will take place onboard one of the inaugural sailings of Liberty of the Seas, which is the sister ship to famed Freedom of the Seas and the largest cruise ship in the world. The choice of venue reflects the growing importance of cruising in the corporate meetings business, an area in which Royal Caribbean has been a leading player.
“The Certified Corporate Travel Executive program is designed for business travel management professionals who want to add to their expertise in developing and management corporate travel programs,” said Bill Connors, Executive Director & COO of NBTA. “This course will allow corporate travel managers to rethink and realign their roles and programs and to comprehend how to strategically plan beyond internal meetings and events. CCTE is ideal for those travel managers wanting to improve their management techniques and better define future directions and trends in both corporate travel and the business environment within their organizations.”
Materials covered in the Taking on the Strategic Meetings Management Challenge course will guide travel managers on how to strategically plan and understand the difference between sourcing meetings and transient travel. Successful completion of the course will count as an elective credit for those enrolled in NBTA’s Certified Corporate Travel Executive (CCTE) program. Attendees will receive a copy of the popular booklet Framework for Success: Building a Strategic Meetings Management Program, published by the NBTA Groups & Meeting Committee. Facilitator Lynda Garvey, Project Manager with American Express Advisory Service, is leading the course – sharing her experience and offering guidance on how to move towards a centralized, highly efficient planning organization with tight controls over the meeting procurement process.
“By completing this professional development on the Liberty of the Seas, participants not only have opportunities to network with their peers and take part in one of NBTA’s three industry designation programs, but they also have a chance to explore the many exciting features of Liberty of the Seas,” continued Connors. “We are honored partner with Royal Caribbean to host the CCTE course.”
Liberty of the Seas features amenities like the FlowRider® wave simulator for surfing, H2O Zone® water park (complete with water geysers), cantilevered whirlpools, a full-size boxing ring, plus flat screen TVs in every stateroom. The second addition to the Freedom family of ships, Liberty of the Seas holds up to 3,634 people, and weighs 160,000 tons.
NBTA and the NBTA Foundation offer three levels of professional development for corporate travel professionals – the Fundamentals of Business Travel Management/CTE, a designation course targeted towards professionals new to travel management; the Certified Corporate Travel Executive (CCTE) program, the industry’s only certification program, directed towards travel professionals with more than two years of experience; and the Global Leadership Professional program, the industry’s only masters-level designation, offered in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. For more information on these programs, please visit www.nbta.org/education.
Upcoming CCTE offerings include the following:
May 15 – Oregon BTA Professional Education Conference – Portland, OR
May 15 – Tennessee BTA Education Day – Nashville, TN
May 17 – Georgia BTA Education Day – Atlanta, GA
June 5-6 – NBTA 2007 Legislative Summit – Washington, D.C.
June 14 – Florida BTA Education Day – Weston, FL
For more information on these and other CCTE offerings, and program details, see http://www.nbta.org/Education/CertificationCCTE.
In addition to the CCTE course, the NBTA Foundation is hosting a focus group on the sailing, designed to gather information that will help the foundation better serve the corporate travel industry with unique research and educational projects, including the next updates to the NBTA Foundation's Managed Travel Index® & Benchmarking Tool.
For information about Liberty of the Seas, please visit http://www.libertyoftheseasondemand.com.
The National Business Travel Association is the source for critical information on the business travel industry. For nearly 40 years, NBTA has dedicated itself to the professional development of its members through advocacy, education and training, and networking opportunities. NBTA represents over 2,700 corporate and government travel managers and travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than $170 billion of expenditures within the business travel industry. For more on NBTA, visit www.nbta.org.
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