The Story Behind the GowayPro Travel Academy
As I sit here, about to wax lyrical about the GowayPro Travel Academy, I can’t help but be drawn back to its origins. They were dark times as the world literally closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Goway, like at every other travel company, we were scrambling to assist travellers stuck in destinations around the world, processing cancellations and refunds, and dealing with all the unprecedented happenings that COVID wrought on an unsuspecting world. Once the dust settled and the future began to shape itself into prolonged isolation and almost no one travelled, Goway began to prepare for the day that the world would right itself and all that pent up energy and desire to travel would come hurtling back.
We also realized that when that time came, many people, including our own Goway Destination Specialists, would have been out of the travel loop for an extended period. We also predicted and planned around the many new faces who would enter the world of travel, drawn by an appetite to live out their travel passions after several years stuck at home.
Having been with Goway for over 16 years at the time and having the luck of having travelled extensively (85 countries and counting) adding to a love history, storytelling, and video editing, I started to create video-based, destination training modules for when our staffed returned, as we knew they would.
As I was editing these video modules and wistfully staring out of the window, dreaming of the day my social life would move beyond that exciting walk to the grocery store to buy supplies and fight for toilet paper (crazy days), it soon became obvious that these learning modules would also be ideal and beneficial to our travel industry partners out there. Goway always wants to share the love, so we started to offer these modules to the wider world.
Voila, the GowayPro Travel Academy was born, as was the persona of Professor Goway.
The project grew from an internal resource to get our Destination Specialists back on their feet and updated about the world to what we now consider a fully-fledged industry training platform. For proof of our success, you only need to look to the fact that the GowayPro Travel Academy is accredited by ACTA in Canada, endorsed by ASTA in the US, and a part of the Travel Insitute, which allows our American travel partners to earn industry-recognized training credits when going through the program.
The goal from the beginning has been to inspire and to educate. I want to take you on a journey around the world and to empower you with various tips and tricks that will be essential when planning tailor-made trips for your globetrotting clients. Furthermore, I want you to have fun and get inspired to learn more about the world and experience it for yourself. Travel is a force for good and there’s an endless number of things to learn and experience about this wonderful world. Sharing that passion is a part of the fun of the GowayPro Travel Academy.
Since we launched the academy in 2022, we’ve grown our focus from countries and regions to tips on being a travel professional. These include “How to Sell & Market Groups,” insights on pre-trip information and marketing, and the ever-popular “How to Work with Goway” module, which sets you up for a successful partnership with Goway.
This academy is a labour of love, but it’s also an expression of our never-ending journey to learn more, travel more, and share a passion for travel with others. If you’re a member of the academy, thank you for joining me on this journey of learning. And if you’re not a member, consider joining. You’ll learn the tools to grow your business as well as broaden your understanding of all the wonders that tailor-made travel has to offer.
