Organisations & Operators,

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) welcomes the Autonomous City of Ceuta as an Affiliate Member to promote shared values and a common vision on sustainable tourism.
The Autonomous City of Ceuta joins the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to promote sustainable tourism and boost the competitiveness of the tourist destination. The incorporation of the company Servicios Turísticos de Ceuta to the organisation will be ratified during the 116th Session of the Executive Council of the UNWTO, to be held next on 7 and 8 June in Saudi Arabia.
On the occasion of its affiliation, the President of the Autonomous City of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, visited the UNWTO headquarters today to learn first-hand about the work of the organisation with its Affiliate Members. During his visit, they laid the foundations of a joint roadmap to, among other issues, enhance the aspects that can help the tourist destinations to advance in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.
Affiliate Members Department Director, Ion Vilcu, explained that the unprecedented impact of the pandemic on the industry has highlighted the need for tourism to transform itself into a more sustainable sector, while responding to the new tourists´ demands.
The UNWTO welcomes the decision of the authorities of the Autonomous City of Ceuta to join this international entity, which will allow the destination to develop joint projects related to the sector. ADVERTISEMENTThe organisation continues to work in collaboration with its Affiliate Members to provide tools that will enable them to adapt to the new challenges facing the sector and thus adopt a new model of tourism development that is more respectful of the environment and people.

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The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has reported that three months after its launch, the “Meaningful Travel Campaign” – a collaboration between the TAT Stockholm Office and Thailand-registered social enterprise Socialgiver – has raised over 400,000 Baht and preserved 35,000 big trees in Thailand.
Yuthasak Supasorn, TAT Governor, said “It is wonderful to see such great support being shown to the Meaningful Travel Campaign by Nordic and Baltic tourists visiting Thailand, and we thank them for this. The campaign is aimed at helping tourists support nature conservation and protect green spaces throughout the kingdom. This is in line with the TAT’s commitment towards more sustainable and more responsible tourism, and we hope to see more travellers joining the good work being done.”
Socialgiver is a non-profit organisation that partners with social and environmental projects from across Thailand and helps them raise funds for the work they do. Working with Socialgiver and TAT in the “Meaningful Travel Campaign” is the Big Trees Project – an environmental volunteer and advocacy group that works with communities, government agencies, and the private sector in promoting awareness and helping preserve green spaces in Bangkok and around Thailand.
Big Trees was founded in 2010 and brings the general public and organisations together in preserving public green spaces and the environment. It is working to build a strong cycle of tree care – from the nurturing of seedlings, to training and connecting arborists to care for large trees around Thailand – and at the same time to create jobs for the local people and raise awareness on the important role big trees play in nature.
With the “Meaningful Travel Campaign”, 50 percent of the revenue from Nordic and Baltic tourists booking hotels, restaurants, attractions, and other experiences in Thailand through the Socialgiver platform, goes to Big Trees. It offers them not only a fantastic holiday, but a meaningful one as well, as they will be giving back to the local communities and the environment.ADVERTISEMENT

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Travel booking platform GetYourGuide.com, has announced the results of a new survey aimed at uncovering what ‘unforgettable’ experiences mean to U.S. travelers in today’s world, which revealed consumers are in search of authentic experiences, avoiding tourist traps when planning itineraries and opting for domestic destinations in 2022. These trends are expected to play out widely as travel bookings are increasing: GetYourGuide’s U.S. booking volumes have more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic numbers in 2019.
“It’s great to see a renewed desire to discover new and different experiences through travel,” said Caroline Berger, Head of Brand, U.S. at GetYourGuide. “We’ve observed a sharp increase in our U.S. booking volumes as travelers are making up for time lost over the last few years—many of whom are more conscious than ever of avoiding the stereotypical tourist traps. As travelers become more discerning, we will be providing unforgettable experiences for them.”
The report’s results found common themes among those planning to travel and book experiences in 2022. Notable highlights include:
Travelers are going out of their way to avoid tourist trapsAs many seasoned travelers know, popular destinations can often include ‘tourist traps,’ identified by survey respondents as attractions lacking in authenticity – inaccurately claiming to be unique and exclusive – with inflated prices, long lines, and/or large crowds. These ‘traps’ may act as a barrier for travelers when creating their travel itineraries, leading some to change plans or avoid a destination altogether.
Two out of three (67%) travelers feel they have experienced tourist traps that led to inauthentic experiences
More than two-thirds of travelers (68%) say they’ve decided against visiting an attraction or excursion because they were concerned it was a tourist trap, while four out of ten travelers (41%) say they’ve avoided a destination altogether due to concerns of tourist traps
“Doing your research and booking with a trusted provider is essential for those looking to escape the tourist traps,” said Berger. “By visiting GetYourGuide.com or the GetYourGuide app, travelers not only have access to transparent pricing, flexible booking policies and real customer reviews – which have become table stakes to today’s traveler – they also get a fully curated experience, one that has been vetted by us.”ADVERTISEMENTTravelers are craving to explore new and unforgettable experiences in their own backyardOn average, U.S. travelers take around 3 ½ leisure trips per year, and this year, many (55%) Americans are planning to spend their time off within the U.S., opting for beach getaways (44%) and road trips (36%). Among those with 2022 travel plans:
Two-thirds of travelers say that experiencing new and different things (66%), as well as feeling recharged and relaxed (66%) are the main goals of their vacations
Most travelers plan to go sightseeing (42%) and partake in family-friendly activities (39%)
Travelers ranked favorable prices (54%), having a wide range of activities and experiences (34%) and avoiding big crowds (34%) as top priorities when booking travel experiences
The top priorities for travelers are having a sense of freedom (38%) and taking part in authentic experiences (37%)
Travelers are valuing the ‘who’ in addition to the ‘where’Whether it is enjoying a new city’s culinary scene, hiking the Grand Canyon or swimming with sharks, most travelers agree that it’s the people they travel with that contribute to making an experience ‘unforgettable.’ Among the open-text comments requested in the survey, respondents echoed the importance of family, friends and loved ones when creating lasting memories.
Close to two-thirds (58%) of travelers feel that creating beautiful memories with loved ones contribute to making a travel experience unforgettable, while four out of ten of travelers (38%) say that learning about the history of different sights and places also makes a trip unforgettable
‘Beautiful’ and ‘fun’ were the most mentioned words when asked to describe unforgettable experiences

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Tripadvisor has announced that Matt Goldberg has been named its Chief Executive Officer, succeeding co-founder and long-time CEO, Stephen Kaufer.
“We are excited to announce the appointment of Matt Goldberg to the role of CEO,” said Greg Maffei, Chairman of the Board at Tripadvisor. “Matt has proven leadership and experience in strategy and operations for more than 20 years across a number of leading media, advertising, and consumer-facing companies. We welcome him to the team and look forward to his expertise as he leads Tripadvisor in the next phase of its journey.”
“I could not be more enthusiastic about joining Tripadvisor, a company I have long admired, whose leadership and teams have built an amazing, globally recognised consumer brand with a unique spot in travel and digital media,” said Matt Goldberg, incoming CEO. “I’m incredibly excited to return to the travel sector to innovate within the industry and leverage the platform’s reach and community trust. I see a long runway ahead and many opportunities to create value for our travelers and partners.”
“After a comprehensive search, I believe that the Board has found a strong leader in Matt for our iconic brand,” said Steve Kaufer, CEO and co-founder, Tripadvisor. “Our employees, partners and travelers will be well served by Matt who is a strategist with experience in the travel, digital, media and retail industries. I look forward to supporting his success and watching him guide this business into an exciting future.”
Over his career, Goldberg has served in various leadership roles in the digital content, media and entertainment, and travel industries, and in both B2B and direct-to-consumer models at companies such as News Corp, Liberty Interactive Corp, Lonely Planet, and Dow Jones. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President, North America and Global Operations at The Trade Desk. Goldberg is also Founding Director of Dataphilanthropy, a non-profit focused on building programs to apply data to better address and understand economic disparity. He holds a B.A. in English from Cornell University, an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Melbourne, and an M.B.A from Stanford University. Goldberg’s anticipated start date is July 1, 2022 and he will be based at the company’s Needham, MA headquarters.ADVERTISEMENTSteve Kaufer co-founded Tripadvisor in 2000 and last year announced his intention to leave his role as CEO.

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TUI’s summer season has officially started in Turkey with around 180,000 guests flying into Turkey in April and May. TUI has grown its capacity for this summer and will bring over 1.5 million guests to Turkey from its 13 source markets in 2022. Around one million them will be holidaying across the resorts of Antalya and around 500,000 in the resorts of Izmir, Bodrum and Dalaman.
Members of TUI’s Executive Committee met hundreds of Turkish hotel partners to discuss its plans to grow further its holiday programme across the destination for Summer 2023. It aims to bring significantly more customers to Turkey next summer, compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. TUI is also looking to focus on developing its winter programme and extending the season in Turkey.
TUI also shared information on trends it is seeing amongst guests. It has seen guests upgrading their holiday, booking longer durations, room upgrades and activities as people have missed their breaks in the sun.
“Over 90% of TUI’s capacity to Turkey is a package holiday, so our hotel partners are guaranteed beneficiaries when one of our flights land,” said David Burling, CEO Markets & Airlines, TUI Group. “We work with a thousand hotel partners across Turkey, who are key to our holiday strategy. We are in Turkey to meet our hotel partners face-to-face to discuss growing our capacity further and want to work together to bring even more holidaymakers here in 2023.”
TUI has been operating holidays to Turkey for over 40 years and it offers over 12,000 flights to and from the destination from all its source markets – via its own TUI airlines or partner carriers.ADVERTISEMENT“We have seen strong demand for holidays to Turkey as customers are attracted by the mix of beaches and culture, as well as the great range of hotels and quality service. People want to travel after two years of pandemic, they are literally sitting on packed suitcases for spring and summer. Tourism will have a very good summer in 2022 and countries which were hit particularly hard by travel restrictions during the pandemic, will benefit from this. Things are looking very positive for hotels, for family businesses and for the many local partners who work with us to make guests’ holidays successful,” said Sebastian Ebel, TUI Group CFO, who joined the events held at the TUI BLUE SENSATORI Fethiye and at the Rixos Premium Belek.
TUI also used the opportunity to present TUI BLUE Palm Garden in Antalya with their TUI Global Hotel Award. The hotel won the category for Best Hotel – TUI Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland.
Based on customer feedback, the TUI Global Hotel Awards recognise hotels that have received outstandingly high satisfaction scores from TUI customers and have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability. The TUI Global Hotel Awards winners were announced a few weeks ago in a virtual ceremony, with local presentations happening to personally congratulate hotel partners.
Two other hotels were also congratulated at the event for achieving fantastic feedback from TUI customers. Concorde de Luxe Resort in Antalya and Kirman Sidera Hotel Luxury & Spa in Antalya were shortlisted in the Top 5 for some categories.
As a key destination to TUI’s growth strategy, TUI also named one of its newest aircraft Antalya. The official name-giving ceremony took place at Antalya airport at the beginning of the month, with World Champion gymnast, Ayşe Begüm Onbaşı selected as godmother of the aircraft.
www.tuigroup.com

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Russia has been suspended from the UNWTO, following a vote by members of the General Assembly, and will lose its membership rights with immediate effect.
Meeting for a first extraordinary UNWTO General Assembly, members debated the suspension of Russia from the organisation, as decided by the UNWTO Executive Council at its emergency meeting last month. The Russian delegation declined to step up and defend its position, and instead announced its withdrawal from UNWTO before the debate took place.
The Assembly voted in favour of suspension, exceeding the two-third majority required. The decision is effective immediately, while voluntary withdrawal is only effective one year after a member submits an official communication through the appropriate channels.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “UNWTO’s Members have sent a clear message: tourism is a pillar of peace and international friendship, and members of UNWTO must uphold these values or face consequences, with no exceptions. This emergency General Assembly shows that Russia’s actions are indefensible and contrary to the very principles of UNWTO and of international governance.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the decision to quit the UNWTO would not affect the sector in Russia.ADVERTISEMENTHe said: “The tourism sector, especially domestic tourism, will continue its development. The external directions for tourism are also open, hinging on questions of competition in terms of quality and price.”
Loss of rights and privilegesIn total, 99 countries were represented in Madrid. According to Article 3 of the Statutes, all Members commit to developing tourism with a “view to contributing to economic development, international understanding, peace, prosperity, and universal prospect for, and observance of, human rights”.
The Russian Federation will not be able to exercise the rights or enjoy the privileges of UNWTO membership. This means it will not be able to receive services from the organisation, including technical assistance, nor will the Russian Federation be able to participate in any UNWTO meetings or events, be permitted to put forward any candidates to serve on UNWTO’s statutory bodies, or to vote in UNWTO elections or to propose a candidate to serve as Secretary-General.

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Aurora Expeditions has announced that Michael Heath will join the company, taking on the role of CEO effective June 1st.
Heath, a highly respected executive with 25 years of broad and extensive international experience, has been CEO of Surf Hardware International since 2014 and previously held key leadership and top management positions for global active outdoor brands including O’Neill, Hurley and Nike. 
“It is a privilege to take on the role at such an important time in the businesses’ history and lead Aurora into the future,” commented Heath.
Having recently returned from his first trip to Antarctica, Heath continued “I have experienced first-hand the Aurora Expeditions difference and was incredibly impressed – not just by the awe of Antarctica, but by Aurora’s outstanding expedition experience and highly talented expedition team. I’m looking forward to joining the Aurora family, building on Aurora Expeditions’ pioneering heritage, actively pursuing growth with purpose and capturing the expanding opportunities ahead”.
Voted ‘The World’s Leading Polar Operator’ at the 2020 World Travel Awards, Aurora Expeditions has been delivering life-changing expeditions to the most remote, unique, and biodiverse destinations on the planet for over 30 years. Aurora Expeditions recently celebrated a successful return to operations in Antarctica this year and Heath joins at a time when the business is well-positioned for continued growth, with a deep commitment to sustainable travel and the imminent debut of its second ship, the Sylvia Earle, due to launch in Antarctica in November 2022. ADVERTISEMENTThe company’s new ship, the Sylvia Earle, is named after renowned marine biologist, oceanographer and explorer Dr Sylvia Earle, with decks dedicated to Dr Earle and six other leading female conservationists: Dr Carden Wallace AM, Jo Ruxton, Sharon Kwok, Bernadette Demientieff, Hanli Prinsloo and Dr Asha de Vos.

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CWT announced that Michelle McKinney Frymire has decided to step down from her roles at the Company. As part of the Company’s long-term succession planning process, the Board of Directors has appointed President and Chief Commercial Officer Patrick Andersen as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, effective 1 May 2022. He will also serve on the Company’s Board of Directors.
McKinney Frymire said: “Leading CWT through such a critical phase in its evolution has been a great honor. We have made substantial achievements during extraordinary times, and I am grateful to our global team and customers for their trust and supportive partnership. Now, with a strong financial foundation in place, CWT is positioned to accelerate its growth plan and I’m pleased to pass the baton to Patrick.”
“We are excited that Patrick will serve as our next CEO, given his outstanding track record as Chief Commercial Officer and 13 years in international leadership roles at CWT. He has deep-rooted relationships with our customers and stakeholders and has demonstrated superb leadership through overseeing our strategic priorities, expanding RoomIt, and launching our groundbreaking myCWT China technology platform,” said Jim Abrahamson, Chair of the CWT Board. “On behalf of the Board and our global colleagues, we thank Michelle for her many contributions since she joined the Company in 2019 and wish her well in her next endeavors.”
“I’m delighted and honored to lead CWT to its next stage of growth,” said Patrick Andersen. “As travel demand increases, CWT is well positioned to invest in and expand its industry leadership and global relationships. Importantly, I’ll continue our commitment to our core values and look forward to working with our Board and the CWT team to enhance our technology, and further strengthen the travel and events services we provide to our customers around the world.”
Prior to his role as President and Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Andersen served as Chief Strategy Officer and before that President of the Americas. Since joining the Company in 2008, Mr. Andersen has managed and overseen several industry-defining initiatives including the launch of myCWT China, expanding RoomIt by CWT, and developing innovative long-term GDS technology partnership agreements. He has over 30 years’ experience in global travel & logistics, with various international leadership roles at Deutsche Post Worldwide and DHL. Andersen also serves as a Non-Executive Member of the Board at Global Minnesota, and MNSNAP, and is on the Board of Overseers for the Carlson School of Management. He studied management at the London Business School.ADVERTISEMENT

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