E-learning on tourism destinations. The case of Ticino Switzerland Travel Specialist course

While Information and Communication Technologies have offered Destination Management Organizations the possibility of reaching tourists and prospects in a direct way, dis-intermediating such communication, they can also provide a suitable platform for involving travel agents and better preparing them to sell a specific destination through ad-hoc designed e-learning courses. This paper presents one such online course –Ticino Switzerland Travel Specialist (TSTS)– published by the tourism office of Ticino, a Swiss canton, in order to train travel agents on the destination itself. While the goals and structure of the course are briefly outlined, the evaluation process is described in detail, especially when it comes to the experiences and perspectives of participants. Results show that e-learning courses play an important role in the different strategies used by professionals in order to obtain knowledge about a destination and that those who finish the course and getthe TSTS certificate are more likely to study in the office, also investing working hours. As a consequence of doing the course, more than half the participants visited the destination’s official website, discussed the destination itselfwith their colleagues, and suggested the course to colleagues