organisations-operators

Travel management platform CWT has appointed Michelle McKinney Frymire to the role of chief executive.
She will take up the position at the start of May.
Incumbent, Kurt Ekert, will be stepping down and will take on the role of senior advisor to the company.
Frymire joined CWT in 2019 and has over 20 years’ travel industry experience.
Her leadership has spanned a broad range of functions with notable leadership roles as the chief financial officer at Starwood Vacation Ownership and Delta Technology (a division of Delta Air Lines). ADVERTISEMENT“I am delighted to welcome Michelle to the role of leading our company into the next phase of our development, building on the successes of recent years, and continuing to push us into achieving our true potential,” said Rick Gage, chair of CWT parent company, CTII Holdings.
“Following a strong and dynamic performance in her most immediate role as president, strategy & transformation and chief financial officer, her leadership skills will be key to our future accomplishments and continued development.
“As a natural development in our succession planning, I am also pleased that Kurt will remain an advisor to CWT, and I thank him for his leadership and impact.”

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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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