DWHSA now offers a basic professional certification program for travel agents who sell romance travel!
By successfully passing DWHSA’s online certification exam, you will earn this designation from DWHSA:
Certified Destination Wedding, Honeymoon, and Romance Travel Specialist
This certification program is designed as a professional credential that you may use to promote your services to clients and prospects. You will receive permission to use the CDWHRTS designation as well as a special certification logo that you may add to your business cards, your web site, and other materials.
Click here to register for the exam!
Why is DWHSA doing its own certification program?
Many DWHSA members have requested a professional certification built specifically for the association – one that would be developed by agents who are working every day in the romance travel niche. They’ve also asked that we offer a certification option at the lowest possible cost, compared to other travel and bridal association certifications that can run hundreds of dollars.
DWHSA will definitely continue promoting other romance travel-related certification programs, including the Travel Institute’s “Honeymoons and Destination Weddings Specialist” program (US$54) and the Wedding Planners Institute of Canada’s “Destination Wedding Specialist” program (CAN$349).
What does the basic certification cost?
There is no charge for the certification itself once you have passed the exam – DWHSA is offering this program as a membership benefit. However, there is a testing fee of US$39 (we’re using an outside testing service to administer the online exam). That testing fee covers two (2) attempts to pass the exam (i.e., if you don’t pass on the first try, you’re automatically covered to take the exam a second time without paying again). The exam fee is nonrefundable.
How can I register for the exam?
Click this link to sign up and submit the testing fee. Then, good luck!
Do you have to be a member of DWHSA in order to earn the certification?
Yes. Because DWHSA members’ dues paid for the exam development and for other expenses (e.g., the certification logo), we feel very strongly that it’s unfair to allow non-member agents to take the exam. Also, DWHSA’s model is offering 24/7/365 networking and training for agents in the romance travel niche, and therefore we want agents who hold this certification to be part of the association.
Therefore, you must be a current member in good standing in order to take the exam – and, you must remain in good standing to use the certification. (If you earn the certification but decide later not to renew your DWHSA membership, you will not qualify to continue using the designation.)
I’ve already completed DWHSA’s online course – why do I need to do an additional certification?
DWHSA offers two primary avenues of training for members: the online course and our webinars.
The online course offers more than 50 video-based lessons with copies of the slides used in each lesson. It’s designed to be your online training library – you may take the entire course, lesson by lesson, or you may pick and choose individual lessons to complete. You may proceed at your own pace – there is no deadline or schedule for finishing individual lessons or the entire course.
Beyond the course, DWHSA offers two live webinars every week, 52 weeks a year. The webinars are designed to give you current information on specific topics (whereas the course contains more basic information that doesn’t change as often). DWHSA records every webinar and posts the videos in the online library inside DWHSA.com. You may watch the videos any time that’s convenient for you.
While the online course and the webinars offer actual training, the new DWHSA certification is simply a professional credential. It’s a marketing tool to show your clients and prospects that you have the basic knowledge needed to handle their romance travel bookings.
If you simply want to sharpen your skills and build your knowledge as a romance travel specialist, you may use the online course and the webinars to do that. But, if you’d like a credential that you can show the public to demonstrate that you are a capable romance travel specialist, the new certification will give you the “social proof” to show that.
How can I prepare for the exam?
The best way to prepare for the exam is to review the contents of the online course. Some members who are newer to romance travel will prefer to complete the course first before attempting the exam, watching every lesson and reading through the lesson slides.
Other members who have more experience in this niche may simply want to read through the lesson slides. (Here are the links to open or download all of the slides for the 50+ lessons collected in a single Adobe PDF file: 1 slide per page or 3 slides per page. On a PC, left click on these links to open the files and right click to save them onto your computer; on a Mac, click on the links to open the files or control click to save them onto your computer.)
And, members who are very experienced in romance travel already may wish to try the exam without prepping.
Remember: Your testing fee includes two attempts to take the exam – so, you’re welcome to try it first, and then spend more time studying if you need to retake the exam.
How will the exam be administered?
The exam will be given to you online – you’ll take the exam on your own computer in your own office. It will not be proctored (i.e., you won’t need a witness watching you take the exam). Your specific exam will consist of 50 short-answer questions (e.g., true/false, multiple choice) pulled randomly from a bank of 200 questions developed by DWHSA’s Education and Certification Committee.
(We want to give a big “Thanks!” especially to Katie Cianciolo, a DWHSA charter member whose business background includes not just romance travel sales but also certification program development for healthcare associations – she has invested a lot of time with Lisa and John developing the question bank!)
Once you register for the exam, Lisa will email you a web link and a passcode to take the exam. When you’re ready, click the link, enter your name and passcode, and begin the exam. There is no deadline for using the link.
Once you begin the exam, you’ll have an unlimited amount of time to take the exam – and, you may pause the exam on your computer and resume later (if, for example, a client calls).
You’ll be shown five questions per page on your screen. You may skip back and forth between individual questions and pages – you do not need to answer each question in order before you may proceed.
You must answer 40 of the 50 questions (80 percent) correctly in order to pass the exam.
When you finish the exam, the outside testing service will send you an email within minutes showing your score and a list of the questions you answered incorrectly.
If you pass, you’ll also receive an automated certificate confirming that you are now certified. You may begin using the “Certified Destination Wedding, Honeymoon, and Romance Travel Specialist” designation immediately, and Lisa will email you later the certification logo.
If you do not pass, you may retake the exam immediately or sign back in with your passcode at a later date to take the exam a second time. (The system will generate a new assortment of randomly selected questions for you then.)
Once you earn the certification, do you have to take the exam again in the future or take other steps to retain the certification?
At this time, there are no “recertification” requirements – once you pass the basic exam, you will earn the certification, and you do not have to qualify in any way in the future to retain it. (You must remain a DWHSA member in order to qualify to use the certification.)
Is there a level beyond the basic certification?
Lisa Sheldon (DWHSA’s executive director) is finalizing the requirements now – based on two years of input from the DWHSA Advisory Board and the DWHSA Education and Certification Committee – for a higher level of certification that will debut later this summer:
Certified Destination Wedding, Honeymoon, and
Romance Travel Master Specialist
The “master specialist” certification will require numerous steps, including a “white paper” and examples of marketing tasks you’ve taken for your business. You will not be required to take the basic exam in order to earn the master specialist certification.
While the basic certification is based on passing an online exam, the master specialist certification will require more time and effort – and, over time, we want it to become the “gold standard” for romance travel specialists. So, stay tuned for more details this summer!
Questions? You can reach us at [email protected] or 615.730.9977!