David T. Parry, American Tourism Society (ATS) chairman and chairman of the Academic Travel Abroad, presided over the 2009 Annual Meeting and announced the results of the biennial elections to the ATS board of directors. The Annual ATS Meeting took place at the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm in Mecklenburg Vorpommern, Germany, immediately preceding the opening of the ATS Fall Conference.
Leading ATS for second terms are Chairman David Parry and President Phil Otterson, VP external affairs, Tauck World Discovery. Other ATS board members elected to the executive committee are Jan Rudomina, Polish National Tourist Office, ATS VP and finance; David Spinelli, Vacations.com, ATS VP and secretary; Nico Zenner, Travelbound by Travelport, new ATS director; and Don Reynolds, executive vice president. Parry, in his opening remarks at the ATS Annual Meeting, noted: “In the 40 years that I have been in the US travel industry, this past year has definitely been the most challenging one. Despite the p
Jeri Clausing
The wide smiles on the faces of the owners of AmaWaterways during a webinar on the line s planned summer restart may have summed up best the relief being felt across the sector as Europe begins its long-awaited reopening.
But the virtual informational session with advisors last week also underscored the many unknowns that remain about the return to sailing after a year-and-a-half hiatus, including exactly what protocols guests will need to follow and when a broader offering of multicountry cruises will resume.
Top of mind during a Q&A was what the protocols will be for testing, vaccines and masks which, like everything involving pandemic-era travel, are varied and likely to change.
Jeri Clausing
The recent news about Europe reopening to vaccinated travelers this summer was, obviously, welcome news for the long-shuttered river cruise industry.
But with opening dates and details on country-specific buy-in for welcoming travelers still elusive, river operators say it s too soon to say exactly when the season will resume. Still, there s renewed optimism about getting Americans back on Europe s waterways this summer, and possibly sooner than was widely predicted just a month ago. Finally, things are looking up, said Marcus Leskovar, executive vice president of Amadeus River Cruises, which ran a limited series of sailings last summer for European guests. We are currently planning to start the season in June and are preparing for the first group of American passengers onboard a Rhone cruise on July 1, with more American passengers to follow that month and a full return to sailings for Americans in August.
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Tourism entities are counting on the new Covid vaccines, but the rollout process has been slower than anticipated. Photo Credit: PhotobyTawat/Shutterstock.com
2021 is supposed to be the year that a Covid-19 vaccine saves travel.
But if the first week was any indication, it could be a long and unpredictable road.
With slow and uneven rollouts of the first vaccines, more contagious forms of the virus taking hold, fresh lockdowns and more countries looking at pretravel-testing requirements and digital health passes, the rules governing travel at least in the near term promise to be as confusing as ever, if not moreso.