PEMBROKE PINES, Fla., June 2 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — On May 16th, the FCCA’s Vice President, Adam Ceserano, traveled to Santa Marta, Colombia to begin the FCCA Outreach Program. Adam directed a course designed to teach the cruise industry fundamentals of the L.A.S.T. program. Listen, apologize, solve and thank, as well as much more, to the local taxi drivers, tourism guides and the local government.

In addition to familiarizing the attendees with different customer service techniques, the course uses videos and workbooks to provide hands-on, entertaining instruction showing how to work with many different types of guests. Focusing on courtesy and professionalism, marketing, rules, and safety, it teaches them how to interact with their cruise passengers.

The district administration highlights that Proexport, the port of Santa Marta, and the FCCA makes this effort because they are interested in making a significant contribution to the improvement of quality in the hosting of tourists, and makes Santa Marta stronger as a destination. According to Fidel Vargas, Secretary of Tourism of Santa Marta, “Understanding customer needs increases satisfaction, leading to return visitors. Even at the smallest scale it becomes possible to increase tourism, something that the FCCA aims to show, while providing the know-how.”

Understanding the cruise industry and its dynamics is vital in today’s tourism mix, especially in view of the competition that Caribbean tourism faces from other regions of the world. The FCCA has developed a series of workshops that are available to the Caribbean and Latin America, utilizing our research and information capabilities.

The FCCA Training workshops provide the industry’s destination partners with valuable information regarding today’s cruise passengers: their wants, needs and habits, enabling governments and businesses to maximize the impact of cruise tourism in their country.

FCCA is a trade association composed of 11 Member Lines: Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruise Line, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises (USA) Inc., Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Royal Caribbean International. It was created in 1972 by the Member Lines operating more than 100 vessels in Florida, Caribbean and Mexican waters, in order to discuss and exchange views on issues relating to: legislation, tourism development, ports, safety, security and other cruise industry issues.