Costa Crociere enhances services developed for travel agencies by launching the new version of Costa Click – the Costa Crociere website dedicated to travel agents – and training sessions on Second Life to provide tourism professionals with important information. The TTG Incontri tradeshow – to be held at the Rimini Fairgrounds from 12 to 14 October – will provide all visitors with the opportunity to become more familiar with and try out Costa Crociere’s latest innovations.

This new version of Costa Click, bigger and better thanks to the introduction of many new functions, will make the online booking process simpler and faster for travel agents around the world. In fact, as of today, agencies can independently change reservation details, personalising them to satisfy the needs of their customers.

In the same booking inserting two consecutive cruises with the same cabin or several cabins for the same cruise, changing a procedure already selected or confirmed, modifying its category, cabin and additional services (flights, transfers, hotels) for each guest. These are some of the numerous advantages of the new Costa Click.

To make it easier to introduce and use the new system, allowing the trade to become operative as quickly as possible, Costa Crociere launched “CostaClick Second Life Academy”, the first innovative training project on Second Life to train sector operators based on lessons held by e-business specialists on Costa Click and CruisEngine. For this purpose the room of the virtual Palacrociere will be set up as an actual classroom and at the end of the courses it will also be possible to take a guided tour of the ship and its various areas (gym, swimming pool, spa, restaurant, hall and casino).

“Today, there are more than 32,000 travel agencies around the world registered on our website, available in 15 versions for the different markets where we operate, and that’s used by more than 5,000 operators every day” explains Daniele Mancini, Costa Crociere’s Corporate eBusiness Director. “The new portal confirms our commitment to use the web and leading-edge technologies to test increasingly innovative forms of communication. In particular, the new use of Second Life as a training tool for the trade will be a very efficient channel that matches the objectives of Costa’s e-business strategy”.