Skill up on all you need to know with bite sized travel news designed specifically to help you, the Travel Agent, be your best today and tomorrow.
1. A ‘bold’ change is coming to Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines is stripping its employees of their current gear and giving them a more “bold” and “forward” look with new uniforms – the first uniform change since 2008 (click here to see Hawaiian Airlines’ uniforms through the ages).
Starting this month, Hilo-based design studio Sig Zane Kaiao and Japanese design consultants Tetsu Nishiyama and Mikiko Nishiyama, will collaborate to design a new look for the airline in the sky and on the ground.
2. Remains of EgyptAir crash victims located & recovered
Remains of the 66 passengers and crew members aboard EgyptAir’s Flight 804 have been found and recovered, according to officials.
The bodies, which included one Aussie, were located a little over a month after the Airbus A320 fell off the radar en-route from Paris to Cairo and crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.
In a statement, Egyptian Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee said a vessel contracted by the Egyptian government had scoured the crash site to recover remains on Sunday.
3. Helloworld bounces into the Olympics with a new sponsorship deal
Helloworld isn’t just sponsoring Australian basketball for the next four years, it’s managed to score the naming rights to the team heading to the Olympics.
The four-year agreement will see the Australian Junior Championships kick off in September this year with the new title, the Helloworld Australian Junior Championships.
But more importantly, the Boomers – aka the men’s national team heading to Rio– will be known as the Helloworld Boomers.
4. East Coast USA heads to Australia
Representatives from New York City, New York State, New England, Philadelphia and Washington DC will land in Australia and New Zealand later this month for the 2016 East Coast Mission.
The four-city Mission will feature a series of events including B2B sessions, press events and travel agent expos where attendees will be given the chance to learn about each destination and be given the chance to win places on an East Coast famil.
First stop will be in Auckland on 18 July; Melbourne 19 July; Sydney 20-21 July; and Brisbane 22 July. For more information contact Svetlana Monastyrsky at Svet@gate7.com.au.
5. New rail tours with G Adventures
G Adventures has added new Rail journeys to its line of Classic tours including train-based adventures through Bulgaria, Morocco, Spain and Russia.
The new Rail tours bring the small group tour operator’s current offerings to 24 different trips that use trains as the primary mode of transport. Among the new journeys include the 14-day ‘Spain + Morocco by Rail’ tour exploring the Spanish countryside, Madrid, Barcelona and Seville; plus there’s the 10-day ‘Budapest to Sofia by Rail’ taking in Budapest, Hungary and Sofia in Bulgaria.
Other trips include the London by Sofia by Rail – a 22-day tour from London to Sofia; and the 17-day St. Petersburg Express starting in St Petersburg and ending in Russia.
6. Agents get high on the Swiss Tempo
A group of 10 very lucky agents from Tempo Holidays have recently returned from a week-long indulgent famil to Switzerland, where they were all treated to selected highlights along The Grand Tour of Switzerland.
Hosted by Birgit Weingartner from Switzerland Tourism AU & NZ and Lorna Groves from SWISS International Air Lines, the group visited the peaks of Grindelwald, Jungfraujoch – Top of Europe, Mt Pilatus and Mt Titlis, as well as the cities of Luzern, Lugano, St Moritz and Zurich.
Major highs included experiencing the adrenaline-inducing walks along the First Cliff Walk, journey up to the Europe’s highest mountain railway atop Jungfraujoch, riding on the word’s steepest cogwheel train in Pilatus, walking across Europe’s highest suspension bridge in Titlis.
7. Disney brings the ‘Force’ to Agents
Disney spoke to hundreds of Agents from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland last month as part of its annual Disney Days Roadshow.
The 2016 event gave consultants the opportunity to get the latest updates from Disney Destinations including the new Frozen – Live at the Hyperion Broadway Style Musical now open at Disney California Adventure Park; as well as the new Shanghai Disney Resort.
Agents were also treated to some sneak peeks of new attractions and events coming to the land of Disney, including Disneyland Paris’s 25th Anniversary Celebrations, the new Iron Man Experience coming to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort later this year, and PANDORA – The World of Avatar coming to Walt Disney World Resort in 2017.
Click here for more images from the event.