Eliana Willis

American Express Global Business Travel has appointed Nora Lovell Marchant to the role of vice president of global sustainability.
The role was created to drive and coordinate enterprise-wide green initiatives and enable the company to achieve targets set out in its sustainability strategy.
These include establishing American Express Global Business Travel as the leading marketplace for green business travel, attaining carbon neutrality by 2025 and working with clients and partners to drive aviation towards net zero carbon by 2050.ADVERTISEMENTSi-Yeon Kim, American Express Global Business Travel chief risk and compliance officer, said: “Nora has been central to embedding the foundation of sustainability at American Express Global Business Travel and helping drive the wider environmental, social and governance agenda across the organisation.
“Nora’s appointment underlines GBT’s determination to lead the global business travel industry to a greener future.”
Previously, Lovell Marchant was American Express Global Business Travel’s director of global regulatory compliance.
Here, she developed the sustainability strategy, including the establishment of green targets and the creation of a sustainability value proposition.

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The United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) have announced a Destination Tracker in preparation for the restart of international travel.
It is the result of both organisations joining efforts to boost confidence and accelerate recovery of the tourism sector when borders reopen.
The UNWTO-IATA Destination Tracker is a new free online tool for governments to provide information on Covid-19 requirements for travel and the measures in place at the destination.
The tool is available through the websites of both organizations and will provide information on:

Covid-19 Indicators including infection rates, positivity rates, and vaccination roll out by destination/country.
Air Travel Regulations, including test and quarantine requirements, provided by IATA’s Timatic solution.
Destination Measures, including general health and safety requirements such as use of masks, transit through a country, curfew, or regulations related to restaurants and attractions, provided by national tourism organisations. 

The Destination Tracker will fulfil a key need by providing clarity on Covid-19 measures affecting tourism.
The situation for travellers is complex with UNWTO data showing that one in three destinations remains closed to tourists.
Moreover, restrictions and in-country measures are continuously being revised. ADVERTISEMENTUNWTO secretary general, Zurab Pololikashvili, said: “UNWTO is pleased to reinforce its partnership with IATA, a UNWTO Affiliate Member, to provide this important tool.
“Travelers and companies will be able to check requirements in place for air travel, as well as what measures will be in place at the visited destination.
“We trust this tool is also critical for governments to track existing travel restrictions and support the safe restart of our sector.”
The UNWTO-IATA Destination Tracker builds on the existing partnership between the two parties.
In October, UNWTO and IATA signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to restore confidence in international air travel.
The agreement will also see the two agencies partner to foster innovation to drive the restart of tourism, promote greater public-private collaboration in the field of aviation and the tourism sector in general, and advance progress already made towards achieving greater sustainability and resilience.

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Viator and global digital travel platform Booking.com have today announced a new global partnership to showcase thousands of high-quality attractions, tours and activities. 
Viator is a TripAdvisor company and leader in experiences with a marketplace of nearly 400,000 tours and activities around the world.
The integration with Booking.com will begin with key destinations in North America and Europe, with additional locations and inventory to follow over the coming months.
“Experiences are the most memorable part of any trip, and we’re delighted to bring more tour and activity options to Booking.com’s travellers, particularly as travel returns,” said Sarah Dines, vice president of business development at Viator.
“Bringing our experiences inventory to Booking.com’s massive audience of travellers is an exciting integration for travellers and tour operators alike.” ADVERTISEMENTThis integration marks the first time Viator and Booking.com have partnered on experiences, and will bring added value and increased choice to Booking.com’s customers as well as Viator’s global community of tour operators and providers.
Bryan Batista, senior vice president, trips division, Booking.com, commented: “As people start to think about traveling again, we are pleased to be teaming up with Viator, to provide our customers with an expanded choice of relevant tours, attractions and activities in key destinations around the world.
“This collaboration further underlines our ambition and commitment to create a seamless end-to-end experience across the entire travel journey.
“We’ll continue to innovate and focus on making it easier for travellers to experience the very best a destination has to offer, ready in time for when we can all travel more freely and widely again.”
To browse the growing variety of great things to do around the world as travel and destinations start to open up again, travellers can visit the Attractions tab on Booking.com.

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The Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA) has expressed its frustration at comments made by the first minister on television which indicated that there is still no
Scottish government appetite for, or commitment to, the opening up of international travel. 
First minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said progress in tackling coronavirus in the UK must not be put in jeopardy with “too lax a position on international travel”.
She added that she was continuing to push the UK government to take a tougher approach on opening up overseas travel, adding that travel brought a risk of importing new strains of the virus into the UK.
In response, Joanne Dooey, president of the SPAA, said: “We understand that our nations’ health is paramount, yet there are options which are, and should be available, now for international travel such as pre and post travel testing, vaccination certificates and the traffic light system which will mitigate risk.
“We have been working with the Scottish Aviation Group and Scottish government to build a route map to open up travel but comments like this make us wonder if these groups are just paying lip service – publicly supporting the restart of travel whilst actually taking no action to advance it.”
Dooey added: “It’s disappointing to hear such negativity about international travel once again – and no proactive approach to how we can start travel moving again.
“The first minister talks about last year but last summer there were no vaccinations and we had neither the levels of testing nor the ability to undertake genomic sequencing which we now have to trace variants.
“Restarting international travel will be crucial to kickstarting Scotland’s economy, yet business and leisure travellers are being given no inkling about when and how this will be accomplished for Scots.”ADVERTISEMENTThe Westminster government has provisionally set a date for May 17th for international travel to restart, with the introduction of a traffic light system to mitigate risk.
However, authorities in Scotland appear to be moving away from something similar.
Dooey continued: “Until today our sector had been working on the basis that at least some international travel could potentially restart from May 17th, or a date close to that, on a four nations approach.
“What is likely without a four nations’ approach this summer is that those who want to travel and who can afford to, will travel to English airports at the expense of the Scottish economy.
“Airport, airlines and travel companies cannot remain mothballed with the expectation that they will be able to reopen as they were previously at some undetermined date in the future.
“We will lose jobs and importantly our connectivity to the rest of the world.
“The collapse of our industry is being fast tracked.”

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The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched new guidelines for inclusion and accessibility in the sector.
The work focuses on the experience of travellers with disabilities and is designed to help make the tourism industry a more inclusive space.
The guidelines were compiled on the basis of insights and frameworks developed by private sector leaders in tourism, travel and disability experts and research from intergovernmental organisations.
The guidelines are divided into four pillars:

Developing an inclusive and accessible system
Creating safe spaces
Designing an engaging relevant system
Exemplifying inclusion and accessibility

Highlights from these important guidelines include providing training to staff on disability awareness and how to support travellers with disabilities, as well as collaborating with other businesses in areas where there are gaps in accessibility knowledge, experience and services.
The report also emphasises the importance of fostering a respectful environment at all locations and for all activities, specifically reminding staff that their attitude towards people with disabilities plays an integral role in making that customer feel welcome and included.
There is also an importance given to developing accessibility features that are clear, overt, and which such travellers do not require special assistance from staff to use.
Furthermore, the guidelines make clear that businesses should regularly and proactively engage travellers with disabilities in the creation of accessible products and services so that these meet their needs appropriately. ADVERTISEMENTThey should also include accessibility features from the booking process, enabling travellers with disabilities to engage with the business before booking their travel service or product.
Staff should also be empowered to address customer concerns as they occur or to engage other staff members if and where necessary, and inclusive marketing should be developed to dignify representations of all people and authentically represent them.
Gloria Guevara, chief executive of the WTTC, said: “WTTC is proud to release these important high-level guidelines, which will help tourism businesses of all kinds, foster more accessible and inclusive environments.
“The sector is one of the most diverse in the world.
“As the report shows and according to the World Health Organisation, almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life, and about 15 per cent of the global population live with some form of disability.
“It is therefore imperative that we are inclusive.”
Image: Jürgen Fälchle / Alamy Stock Photo

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In the week since the Global Travel Taskforce published its findings on the potential resumption of travel under a traffic light system from May 17th, Saga Holidays has seen an increase of 127 per cent in booking enquiries to its contact centres versus the same period two weeks before.
Enquiries for 2021 have focused on UK and European stays, while short-haul destinations such as Egypt and Madeira are proving popular for travel in 2022, as are European river cruises.
The USA and Canada top the list for most searches for long-haul holidays next year.
And cruise searches have focused on the launch of the tour operator’s modern, boutique ships ‘Spirit of Discovery’ and the brand new ‘Spirit of Adventure’ this summer, of which all but one is now sold out.
Nick Stace, chief executive of Saga Travel, said: “We’d already received a surge in enquiries when the vaccine roll-out started and in the week since the government’s announcement around international travel, we’ve seen another spike from travellers keen to secure holidays.ADVERTISEMENT“The UK and Europe are top destinations for later this year while searches for year-round warmth mean Egypt and Madeira are proving popular for next year.
“Our customers have told us they intend to stay for longer to make up for their year at home so we’re offering many winter sun holidays with four weeks for the price of three.
“Our European river cruises are also experiencing high levels of demand and we’re looking forward to launching our latest ship, ‘Spirit of the Rhine’ later this year.
“Further afield, the USA and Canada are proving popular for next year, but we’ve also just launched tours to exciting destinations such as Guyana and Ecuador and we’re expecting them to do very well as people come out of lockdown determined to make the most of opportunities to travel.”

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ABTA has written to Lord Frost, highlighting the needs of the travel industry in the future relationships with the European Union, post Brexit.
Minister of state Frost is currently negotiating with European officials over the final settlement.
The letter raises the very serious challenges relating to labour mobility owing to restrictions on temporary entry of tourism workers across the EU and continued access to essential health data and the pressing need to regain access to important health data lost after Brexit.
One of the main concerns of the travel industry is the loss the Posted Workers Directive, which, in normal circumstances pre-Covid-19, enabled the posting of around 15,000-20,000 UK workers each year into the EU.
ABTA said had been advised that it would be up to each member state to adopt rules that are more permissive for UK nationals.
However, the association is keen to highlight that a partial solution to the problem can be found by adapting an existing part of the UK immigration system.
The UK already operates a reciprocal Youth Mobility Scheme (Tier 5 visas) covering several countries and ABTA wants government to proactively extend the Youth Mobility Scheme to EU countries. ADVERTISEMENTThere is also significant support amongst the UK’s inbound tourism industry for an extension of the Youth Mobility Scheme.
Within UK-EU Agreement there are also several individual reservations which restrict the rights of UK nationals to perform certain roles in different member states.
One important example for outbound travel affects the ability of UK nationals to provide guiding services to tours in France, where the profession requires nationality of an EU member state.
There are also several other national exemptions for both tour hosts and tour guides.
This will create significant operational difficulties for UK travel businesses, forcing these businesses to hire locally, or to seek out dual nationality staff.
Luke Petherbridge ABTA director of public affairs, said: “The ability for workers to travel freely within the EU is particularly important for the travel industry and the government must work to ensure that as far as is possible there are mutually beneficial reciprocal arrangements in place to facilitate tourism.
“We need to create the conditions that allow the industry to flourish in the future and enable arrangements to be put in place in the coming months to provide operators with the ability to send UK workers to destination countries in time for the peak seasons in the years ahead.”

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Trafalgar will launch a new trip, Journey Along the Civil Rights Trail, in 2021/22.
The offering seeks to bring to life the struggles and triumphs, music and milestones, legends and heroes of the US Civil Rights Movement. 
The itinerary highlights the events and acknowledges the people involved in the ongoing fight for equality and freedom whilst enjoying the magic, music and hospitality that is synonymous with the Southern states of the US.
The trip focuses on the pioneers of the period, particularly Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, starting in Memphis where he was assassinated, and ending in Atlanta, city of his birth.
Along the way, guests will connect with local communities and meet a number of prominent activists and speakers who share their personal stories of growing up as African Americans in the segregated South.
Across nine days, guests will visit key historical locations along the Mississippi Freedom Trail including Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery, and the site just outside Greenwood, where the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till at Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market in 1955 is widely recognised as being a catalyst for the movement.
Other key sites that pay tribute to the trailblazers include the Rosa Parks Museum, the Historic Mason Temple (where Dr. King delivered his famous last speech: “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”), the National Civil Rights Museum, the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery.
Guests will take a moving walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the sight of the tragic “Bloody Sunday” beatings of March 7th, 1965.ADVERTISEMENTThey will also enjoy a spinetingling performance by Alabama’s Carlton Reese Choir, with an insight into how the choir supported the work of Dr. King on his visits to the state, before dinner and a live jazz performance featuring the music of greats like Sun Ra and Erskine Hawkins.
Of course, no journey to the south is complete without soul, blues and delicious Southern home-cooked dishes.
Trafalgar guests will enjoy a signature Be My Guest brunch of Southern favourites in the lovingly restored antebellum home of Sandy Taylor and her husband Harvey, and an exclusive, after-hours experience at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music to name just a few experiences that await.
Gavin Tollman, global chief executive of Trafalgar, said: “2020 made vividly clear just how harmful, hurtful, and deeply divisive racial inequality is and continues to be. 
“Our eyes were again opened to the important work that still needs to be done and the stories that need to be told.”
Image: Travel South USA

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