Page 3 - Jeri Clausing News Today

Jeri Clausing As travelers make their way back out into the world, luxury hotels are increasingly blurring the lines between lodging companies and tour operators with new packages that bundle their five-star accommodations with exclusive off-property experiences. It’s a trend that has been growing for years with the rise of so-called experiential travel. And that appears to be accelerating as luxury properties seek to tap travelers desire to make up for a year lost to the pandemic. This week,...

Jeri Clausing Responding to post-pandemic demand for what it calls "risk-free" travel products, the Travel Corporation is making it easier for advisors to tap into and sell the many and often exclusive experiences developed by its global network of destination management companies (DMC). While better known for its guided travel brands, which include Luxury Gold, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Uniworld Boutique River Cruises and Evan Evans Tours, the Travel Corporation also owns a dozen DMCs that...

Jeri Clausing ALG Vacations executives have just two words for those considering summer trips to the Caribbean: book soon. With demand for travel surging, airfares rising and some cruise lines repositioning from U.S. ports to the Caribbean, ALG Vacations president Ray Snisky and executive vice president Jacqueline Marks say inventory could get tight, fast. "International airfares are starting to get really high, and theyre going up," Marks said during an interview at ALG Vacations recent 500 Cl...

| Alex Zozaya, executive chairman of Apple Leisure Group, being interviewed at the WTTCs Global Summit in Cancun. Photo Credit: Arnie Weissmann A few weeks before ALG Vacations first big in-person meeting, I got an email asking me what color lanyard Id like. Green meant good with hugs and pre-Covid practices. Yellow meant OK with talking but not touching. And red meant totally keep your distance, or to put it more bluntly: back off. At the World Travel & Tourism Councils (WTTC) Global Summit, a...

| ALG Vacations recently held its first in-person, post-pandemic reward trip meeting for advisors, in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where president Ray Snisky said bookings have surged 30% or more over 2019 levels in recent weeks. Senior editor Jeri Clausing sat down with Snisky during the 500 Club Silver trip to talk about the uptick in travel and the challenges still ahead. Ray Snisky Q: It sounds like demand for travel is really picking up. A: Dramatically. Id say really in the last eight ...

| School supplies and other necessities donated by advisors on ALG Vacations 500 Club Silver reward trip are loaded for delivery to 2nd Mile Missions in Punta Cana. Photo Credit: Jeri Clausing Jeri Clausing One of the silver linings of crises past and present has been the boost they give to the travel industry’s social give-back programs. And while such efforts have become largely mainstream across luxury and upscale travel companies, it’s always eye-opening to see what a huge impact even t...

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 its too soon to say exactly when the season will resume. Still, theres renewed optimism about getting Americans back on Europes waterways this summer, and possibly sooner than was widely predicted just a month ago....

The new Rockies to the Red Rocks rail journey, its first in the U.S., will be offered from mid-August to mid-November.

Jeri Clausing One thing the pandemic taught travelers was how to be nimble, with diehard globetrotters forced to repeatedly change vacation plans over this past year. Now, some luxury travel companies are betting adventurous travelers will embrace the unknown with the launch of "mystery" trips. Uniworld Boutique River Cruises , for instance, this week announced its first Mystery Cruise, a 10-day sailing that will launch from somewhere in Europe on June 12, 2022. Hosted by company president and ...

Jeri Clausing While the European river cruise season remains largely on hold until more borders open, domestic river cruise lines say their 2021 is off to a seamless and promising start. One month after launching limited sailings on the Mississippi, both American Queen Steamboat Company and American Cruise Lines said they havent had any guests test positive for Covid-19 before or during their sailings. And both say they are preparing for a strong season. "Demand for our 2021 sailings has been u...