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  • News: Viking River Cruises sets world record

    River cruising is the most popular segment of travel instantly, and in a fitting feat for the world’s leading river cruise line, Viking River Cruises today set an international record with the christening of 10 new Viking LongshipsTM. The primary-of-its-kind simultaneous christening ceremony in Amsterdam debuted the ships – Viking Aegir, Viking Atla, Viking Bragi, Viking Embla, Viking Forseti, Viking Jarl, Viking Rinda, Viking Skadi, Viking Tor and Viking Var – and was certified by a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ adjudicator as ‘The Most Ships Inaugurated in a single Day by One Company.’ Playing an integral role within the event were 10 distinguished women from world wide, representing the secret Viking brand pillars of history, art, education, exploration and discovery, to function ceremonial godmothers for the hot ships.

    “Today is a proud day for Viking and for river cruising. We’re honored to showcase 10 of our revolutionary new Longships and to have had this kind of celebrated group of ladies helping us christen them,” said Torstein Hagen , Chairman of Viking Cruises. “Our guests are explorers, like the ancient Vikings of our Norse heritage, that is why we deliver authentic and enriching travel experiences like no other cruise line.”

    Guests on the christening ceremony enjoyed remarks by each godmother and a presentation at the growth of river cruising by Hagen. A GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS adjudicator also presented Hagen with an official recognition of the record breaking achievement, ‘The Most Ships Inaugurated in a single Day by One Company’ – eight* – breaking the former record of 2 ships. a primary in modern history, four of the christenings befell in front of a crowd of roughly 700 in Amsterdam, and the remainder six were conducted live via satellite from the Neptun shipyard in Germany. The celebration concluded with an onboard dinner and maiden voyage cruise round the Amsterdam harbor.

    Viking Godmothers

    With cultural enrichment and privileged access on the heart of each experience Viking offers its guests, 10 women of eminence from around the globe were selected to honor that spotlight and function ceremonial godmothers for the hot ships. They included:

    *  Lady Fiona Carnarvon , Godmother of Viking Skadi, is the wife of George Herbert , 8th Earl of Carnarvon. A former auditor at Coopers & Lybrand, Lady Carnarvon ran her own fashion label, Azur, and now successfully manages affairs on the Castle, including many special events which includes the Egyptian Exhibition. Curious about Highclere’s rich history, Lady Carnarvon recently authored the hot York Times Bestseller “Lady Almina and the genuine Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere.” Together with Lady Carnarvon , Viking has created its Oxford & Highclere Castle land extension with a privileged access tour of the Castle and its grounds.

    *  Agapi Stassinopoulos , Godmother of Viking Rinda, was born and raised in Athens, Greece. While collaborating along with her sister, Arianna Huffington , on research for her book in regards to the Greek gods, Stassinopoulos’ love for the gods and goddesses was ignited and resulted in two books of her own – “Conversations with the Goddesses” and “Gods and Goddesses in Love” – in addition to a one-woman show and a PBS special. She also co-produced and co-hosted a documentary called “Quest for the Gods,” shot on location in Greece. Stassinopoulos speaks and conducts seminars all over the world, and her latest book is the bestseller “Unbinding the guts.” She could also be a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post.

    *  Alexandra Lobkowicz , Godmother of Viking Forseti, is the chairman of the nonprofit that oversees the preservation of the vast Lobkowicz collections including thousands of artistic endeavors, a major library and family archive spanning eight centuries. Further, she oversees dozens of international loans, festivals, restoration projects and ongoing educational programs relevant to the collections. A former teacher, Lobkowicz also established educational programs on the Lobkowicz museums to assist raise funding for Czech schools. With personal input from Alexandra and William Lobkowicz , Viking has introduced a privileged access tour to Lobkowicz Palace in Prague.

    *  Zhang Ling , Godmother of Viking Embla, is a dedicated educator at Cen He elementary school within the city of Jinzhou, Hubei Province, China – a college sponsored by Viking River Cruises . As one of the dedicated teachers she feels fortunate to have won recognition as an “excellent educator,” “excellent educator of ethics” and “excellent mentor for young pioneers.” She also coaches the children’s orchestra, which has proudly performed for the thousands of Viking’s Yangtze River cruise guests who’ve visited in the past seven years.

    *  Marit Barstad , Godmother of Viking Tor, is the sister of Viking’s chairman Torstein Hagen . Marit started her working life as an individual assistant to the chairman of Oivind Lorentzen AS, an organization that during the late 1960’s built two of the ships that subsequently became Princess Cruises. She is now a manager inside the health services sector in Ski, a town outside Oslo where she has lived with Odd Barstad, her husband for over 40 years.

    *  Dertje Meijer, Godmother of Viking Bragi, is President and CEO of the Port of Amsterdam, that is the fourth largest port in Europe, hosting greater than 100 sea cruise ships and 1,300 river cruises ships, and handling greater than 75 million loads of cargo each year. Ahead of Meijer’s career on the port, she worked for 15 years in business development projects at one of the crucial world’s great transportation hubs, Schiphol Airport.

    *  Geraldine Norman , Godmother of Viking Var, is founding father of the days-Sotheby index of art prices and best-known for her discovery of the art forger Tom Keating . A professional within the history of The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, Norman also authored “The Hermitage: The Biography of an excellent Museum.” Since, Norman was engaged on international outreach for the Hermitage, starting The Hermitage Magazine and assisting within the establish the Hermitage Rooms exhibition space in London. Additionally, Norman co-created Viking’s successful week-long “Glories of the Hermitage” tour and “Hermitage Behind Closed Doors” excursion, offering Viking guests privileged access to at least one of the world’s greatest museums.

    *  Sabine Rhabek, Godmother of Viking Jarl, is a founding member of the emergency room team on the General Hospital (AKH) in Vienna and a former nurse on the United Nations Mission Hospital in Iran, where she provided remedy to thousands of Kurdish refugees throughout the first Gulf War. Following her time on the Mission Hospital, Rhabek transitioned into medical technology, providing tech support for users of implanted defibrillators and pacemakers.

    *  Birgit Brandner-Wallner , Godmother of Viking Atla, is the co-owner of a Brandner Gmbh subsidiary that operates 38 piers in Austria and Hungary in addition to two passenger ships, MS Austria and MS Austria Princess. In 1997, Brandner-Wallner was the primary woman in Austria to procure her ship’s captain certification.

    *  Eszter Volner , Godmother of Viking Aegir, is a Budapest native, and lives at the Danube’s shore. Daughter of Dr. Pal Volner, secretary of the Hungarian State Ministry of National Development, she studies tourism and catering in addition to her past love, music, including voice and violin, and appears forward to a future within the classical singing field.

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  • News: Altria TCB launches online travel portal The yank Holiday in India

    The yank Holiday™, a unit of Altria TCB group, a globally renowned travel company has entered the Indian travel and tourism industry. Established in 1960s, Altria is a distinguished worldwide associate network with well-designated travel associates spread across various continents like Australia, Asia, Africa, North America and Europe.

    Its India operation, headquartered at New Delhi is registered as a Public Limited company. The American Holiday™ aims to produce quality travel and tourism services in India and has tied up with over 220 travel associates around the length and breadth of the rustic. The various major cities where it will likely be providing its services are New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Pune, Hyderabad, Goa, Nagpur, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bangalore.

    The American Holiday™ is a member of renowned travel associations like PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) & ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents).

    The American Holiday™ offers principal services that come with destination management, outbound tourism, business travel, domestic holidays, luxury global weddings and incentive & conference solutions. The corporate is additionally planning to give weekend breaks, luxury packages, honeymoon packages and adventure packages. The experienced management team and the organization believes within the principle of 101% customer satisfaction or 100% payback.

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  • Hilton celebrates 50th anniversary of operations in Japan

    Hilton Worldwide has today launched a campaign to commemorate its 50th year of operations in Japan. As portion of the celebrations, the leading global hospitality company has announced a chain of promotions and sweepstakes on the way to be rolled out over the subsequent yr, and unveiled its 50th anniversary ambassador – renowned Japanese celebrity, Junichi Ishida.

  • New UNWTO/Tourism Australia report highlights tourism potential of SE Asia

    Asia’s affluent middle class is determined to extend almost fivefold over a better two decades, presenting significant opportunities for Australian tourism, based on a brand new report released by Tourism Australia and the arena Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at this year’s Australian Tourism Exchange (ATE).

    ‘Key Outbound Tourism Markets in South-East Asia’ provides up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of the main tourism trends and developments in five key South-East Asian outbound markets: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

    Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the study would help the Australian tourism industry to raised understand, communicate with, and serve these five, key emerging outbound markets.

    “The crucial factor behind the expansion of travel out of the Asian markets – from South-East Asia up to from China – is the increasing middle class population of these source countries because of their growing economic prosperity.

    “Each market is different, but all of them possess significant potential, which we have to understand to actually benefit from this Asian Century,” Mr McEvoy said.

    UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai said around 30 per cent of the world’s middle class population is now in Asia and this figure is anticipated to extend almost fivefold over a higher twenty years, to a few.4 billion or 60% of the world’s total.

    “UNWTO is amazingly pleased to have partnered with Tourism Australia in producing this report that sheds new light at the travel trends of those countries,” said Mr Rifai.

    The new report provides detailed profiles of every market in response to extensive research, including analysis in their future potential.

    In 2012, these five countries accounted for US$ 47 billion in international tourism expenditure, up from US$ 25 billion in 2006.

    Mr McEvoy said that every of the five countries had its own unique characteristics but that all of them had the aptitude to be significant future source markets for Australian tourism within the coming years.

    “Indonesia stands proud as a result size of the rustic and its population. Whilst it has some distance to visit realise its potential, Indonesia is making rapid progress and is extremely much on our radar,” he said.

    “Singapore is notable for its wealth and is by far the biggest of the five markets when it comes to spending. It’s also a more mature market, the sole country on this study where outbound travel – long-haul and short-haul – is already a reality for almost all of residents.

    “Malaysia is comparable to Singapore with regards to the present levels of outbound travel, but these days those trips are predominantly short-haul, often the identical day. The spending power of Malaysians isn’t as high as Singaporeans, but higher than in Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, so there’s good potential here too.

    “Thailand has arguably been hampered lately by political upheavals and environmental catastrophes, consisting of recent flooding, but nevertheless still presents sizeable opportunities for economic and outbound tourism growth.

    “Vietnam has a enormous population, but average incomes are still very low. When it comes to current spend and visitation, is by far the smallest of the five markets in the mean time, but in addition the fastest growing,” Mr McEvoy said.

  • News: Zipcars now available at greater Ny city airports

    Zipcar, Inc., the world’s leading car sharing network, today announced the introduction of Zipcar vehicles at three airports within the Greater Ny city area, including Newark Liberty, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy (JFK) airports. The cars are conveniently located in Zipcar branded parking spaces on the Avis Car Rental pick-up facility at each airport.

    “Every day tens of thousands of members depend upon the ease of Zipcar’s on-demand access to ‘wheels once they want them’ near home and work. Today we’re excited to bring the benefit of Zipcar’s leading strategy to Zipsters once they travel,” said Zipcar President Mark Norman . “We stay up for supporting members’ travel needs at additional airport locations over the process the arrival year.”

    Zipcar is currently offering four vehicles at Newark Liberty Airport, four vehicles at LaGuardia Airport and five Zipcar vehicles at JFK Airport. The Zipcars in these locations include Honda Civic and Nissan Sentra models, with pricing ranging from $12 per hour and $89 per day. As with any Zipcar reservations, gas, insurance and 180 miles per day are included within the reservation price for these vehicles. The vehicles contain E-ZPass® readers, and members would be billed separately for the toll charges.

    The vehicles could be reserved by all Zipcar members ages 21 and up, including those residing within the greater Ny city area in addition to those traveling to the world. Detailed instructions on easy methods to locate the Zipcars could be included inside the reservation confirmation page for reserving members. The Zipcars at JFK and Newark Liberty airports are accessible via the airports’ monorail systems, and all three airports may be reached using public transportation.

    “The availability of Zipcars at airports will provide increased options for members who won’t desire a full day rental car, or when you have to travel somewhere not easily accessible by public transit,” continued Norman. “We believe it is the primary in lots of new offerings in order to enhance the worth of Zipcar membership that we are able to provide because of the support of the Avis Budget Group.”

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