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Seychelles present at Access Luxury Travel Show Workshop in capital city of Czech Republic

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The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) was present at the seventh Edition of the Access Luxury Travel Show Workshop held on Monday March 11, 2019, at the Kaiserstejnsky Palac in the city of Prague.

The opportunity gave the STB team the chance to meet major partners on the Czech market, which is one of the strongest economies in Central Europe and has shown growing interest in luxury travel over the past few years.

The workshop, which was attended by about 86 participants including Tour Operators, Travel Agents and airline companies was a series of pre-scheduled one on one meetings, presentations and free flow workshop. The evening ended with a networking cocktail and a Raffle draw.

Ms. Myra Fanchette, Paris based STB Senior Marketing Executive represented the organisation at the event, during which she presented Seychelles as a multi-faceted holiday destination offering a plethora of possibilities for leisure and relaxation.

The Destination’s representative through STB, stood alongside 19 other exhibitors including the Constance Hotels & Resorts, few Destination Management Companies, hotel representative from Maldives and the Jamaica Tourism Board.

Ms. Fanchette mentioned that STB’s participation at the Access Luxury Travel Show Workshop opened doors for new business relationships between the service providers from the Czech Republic and STB.

“It was an ideal platform for STB to meet with new Travel Agencies and Tour Operators, which so far Seychelles does not appear in their portfolio and they have demonstrated great interest in new destinations. We also maximised on our presence at the event to meet with our existing partners who wanted to know about any latest developments on the destination and discussed plans and activities for the year,” said Ms. Fanchette.

The Czech Republic has seen an increase of 43% on the visitor’s arrival from January to March 2019, compared to the same period last year. This is very encouraging and our continuous efforts to enhance the growth on the Eastern European markets are ongoing with various activities planned for the year, the next STB appearance will be on a dedicated Eastern Europe Roadshow, which will be held from May 27 to 30, 2019 in four different cities.

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1st Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition: Who made the list?

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The 1st Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition recognizes the contribution of startups in the development of a more competitive and sustainable gastronomy tourism sector that works towards achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 SDGs.

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Basque Culinary Center (BCC), with the support of PromPeru have announced the finalists of the 1st Global Gastronomy Tourism Startup Competition, which recognize disruptive, inspirational projects having made an invaluable contribution to innovation in gastronomy tourism.

Over 300 initiatives were submitted from over 84 countries. Finalists were selected from Japan, Spain, Israel, Italy and the Czech Republic, ranging from new technologies, community-based tourism development projects, software initiatives and innovation-driven agricultural sustainability projects; all contributing to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The five selected startups will present their pitches to investors, gastronomy tourism experts and sector stakeholders within the framework of the 5th UNWTO World Forum on Gastronomy Tourism (San Sebastian, Spain) on 3 May 2019 where the winner will be selected by a jury.

The winning startup will be invited to take part in the Culinary Action accelerator programme during the second semester of 2019, where it will benefit from the mentoring and advice of the network of experts of BCC Innovation, a workspace in LABe’s Digital Gastronomy Lab project incubator, and a grant of up to 5,000 euros to cover the cost of accommodation and travel during this period.  All finalists will also be invited to present at the Ibero-American Gastronomy Fair (Miami, USA, 9-11 May 2019).

List of Finalists (in alphabetical order):

  1. ARB (Italy)

ARB provides farms, institutions, organisations and associations with technical assistance and support for multifunctional agriculture, diversification of agricultural activities, and innovation projects in agriculture.

  1. ARTHYLEN (Spain)

ARTHYLEN combines deep-learning and augmented reality technologies to facilitate the recognition of fresh products exposed in supermarkets, restaurants or warehouses in real time for hotels and restaurants.

  1. BITEMOJO (Israel)

Bitemojo is an award-winning innovative mobile app that offers a self-guided culinary experience via smartphone.

  1. DINIFY (Czech Republic)

Dinify offers a multilingual menu platform in which restaurants can publish and manage menus in multiple languages in order for travelers to read and order from restaurant menus in their native languages, no matter where they are and what their languages are.

  1. GINKAN (Japan)

GINKAN (SynchroLife) is the world’s first social restaurant review app with artificial intelligence based restaurant recommendations and cryptocurrency token rewards.

List of Semi- Finalists (in alphabetical order):

  1. BOTBOT (Singapore)
  2. CLOUDSALE (Lebanon)
  3. COOKLY (Thailand)
  4. CULTIVIUM (Mauritius)
  5. DINEER (Brazil)
  6. ECOMMUNIA PLANET(Spain)
  7. ESCAPPY TRAVEL (Colombia)
  8. FOLLOW THE FOLK (Spain)
  9. GET UP AND GO COLOMBIA (Colombia)
  10. KIMEGASTROBOT (Spain)
  11. LIMAFOODANDBOAT(Peru)
  12. LINGVO&FOOD (France)
  13. PLANT ON DEMAND  (Spain)
  14. POLOGASTRONOMICO (Portugal)
  15. TERTULIA ALGARVIA (Portugal)

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Václav Havel Airport Prague: Here comes summer

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Spring may have just officially sprung on March 20, but in Prague, summer is starting in just 2 days, and tourists are ready to travel.

On Sunday, March 31, 2019, the summer schedule comes into effect at Václav Havel Airport Prague. For the duration of the season, a total of 69 airlines will be operating regular scheduled direct flights from Prague, heading to 162 destinations in 54 countries. There will also be direct flights to 16 long-haul destinations, which is the largest number in the airport’s modern history.

“As part of the summer timetable, a total of four new airlines will be launching services from Václav Havel Airport Prague, two of them on long-haul routes. This proves our long-term success in motivating an ever-increasing number of airlines to open new routes from Prague, which ultimately means a wider choice of flights for our passengers,” says Vaclav Rehor, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prague Airport. In comparison with the previous summer season, the total number of airlines running direct flights from Prague this summer will increase by two. Four new airlines, Air Arabia, SCAT Airlines, SunExpress, and United Airlines, will be operating their flights from Prague for the first time.

“The forthcoming summer timetable also confirms our long-term success in implementing a strategy to develop long-haul routes. During the summer, direct flights will be available from Václav Havel Airport Prague to a total of 16 long-haul destinations, which is the most in the airport’s modern history. In addition to new destinations such as Astana in Kazakhstan or Newark in New York, USA. Passengers flying during the summer season will also have the opportunity to fly to New York’s JFK Airport, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Montreal just like last year,” adds Vaclav Rehor.

In total, the summer timetable will see flights to 14 new destinations, alongside regular flights to Newark Airport in New York, which United Airlines will run from Prague daily, and flights to Astana, departing twice a week with SCAT Airlines. There will also be flights heading to Casablanca (twice a week with Air Arabia), Florence (offered 4 times a week by Vueling) and Billund (3 flights a week operated by Ryanair). Brand-new routes include two holiday destinations – Pescara in Italy and Zadar in Croatia. Thanks to these new summer routes operated by Ryanair, passengers can take advantage of faster and more comfortable way to destinations which until recently were mostly only accessible by road.

Some direct flights that were already available during the winter flight season will continue also during the summer season. These include, for example, flights to Amman, Marrakesh, Sharjah, Paris Beauvais and Moscow/Zhukovsky.

The most frequent flights this summer season will be those departing to Italy (17 destinations), Great Britain (16 destinations), Spain, and Greece (both with 12 destinations).

Among the most popular destinations with the highest number of flights from Václav Havel Airport Prague will be London (up to 93 flights a week), Moscow (up to 63 flights a week), Paris (up to 58 flights a week), Amsterdam (up to 54 flights a week), and Warsaw (up to 52 flights a week).

Long-haul routes: 16 direct flights offered by 19 airlines:

Astana                             SCAT Airlines

Chengdu                         Sichuan Airlines

Doha                               Qatar Airways

Dubai                              Emirates, flydubai, Smartwings

Philadelphia                    American Airlines

Montreal                         Air Transat

New York                        Delta Air Lines

New York (Newark)        United Airlines

Novosibirsk                     S7 Airlines

Beijing                             Hainan Airlines

Riyadh                             Czech Airlines

Seoul                               Czech Airlines, Korean Air

Xi’an                                China Eastern Airlines

Shanghai                         China Eastern Airlines

Sharjah                           Air Arabia

Toronto                           Air Canada Rouge

Overview of new offers:

14 new destinations with regular transit (compared to the same period in 2018):

Amman                           Ryanair

Astana                             SCAT Airlines

Billund                             Ryanair

Bournemouth                 Ryanair

Casablanca                      Air Arabia Maroc

Florence                          Vueling

Marrakesh                      Ryanair

Moscow (Zhukovsky)      Ural Airlines

New York (Newark)        United Airlines

Paris (Beauvais)              Ryanair

Pescara                           Ryanair

Stockholm (Skavsta)       Ryanair

Sharjah                            Air Arabia

Zadar                               Ryanair

4 new airlines:  Air Arabia, SCAT Airlines, SunExpress, United Airlines

Follow us on Prague Airport’s Twitter @PragueAirport.

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Czech Memorial Scrolls survived the Holocaust and travel to New York City

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The fact that a few of the 1,564 Czech Memorial Scrolls were all in one place at the same time, was almost a miracle. It took detailed planning and the cooperation of many institutions to bring these historical documents to New York City’s Temple Emanu-El for one-evening. It is only through the efforts of the Herbert & Eileen Bernard Museum and the auspices of the Memorial Scrolls Trust of London that this first-time phenomenon took place in New York.

Importance of the Scrolls

Scholars have determined that it would be difficult to identify examples of Jewish culture and religion more suitable than the Torah scrolls. The reading from a parchment manuscript, containing the Hebrew text of the Five Books of Moses, the Divine Teaching handed over to the people of Israel, is the cornerstone to the Jewish synagogue ritual.

More Than Parchment

The Torah scroll is a strip of parchment, prepared from the skin of a kosher animal. Many inches in length, it is supported by two wooden rollers (atzei hayyim, “trees of life”) at each end. Considered to be holy, the text and the scroll hold an exceptional position in Judaism. If the scroll is appropriate for reading in the synagogue, the Torah scroll must be written in Hebrew square script with permanent ink by a professional scribe (sofer). The scroll cannot have textual errors and the letters must be legible. While certain errors and imperfections may be corrected by the scribe, if the damage is wide-ranging, the parchment cannot be used.

Jeffrey Ohrenstein, Chair, Memorial Scrolls Trust, London, UK “These scrolls are survivors and silent witnesses of the Shoah.”

Amazing Grace

The fact that the Torah Scrolls exist at all is a marvel.  They were saved from the Czechoslovakian regions of Bohemia and Moravia during WWII, surviving the planned destruction of everything Jewish and the horrors of the communist regime that controlled the country in 1948.

It is thought that the artifacts survived because Prague, although badly damaged, was not leveled during the fighting. The scrolls were stored in a synagogue in a Prague suburb and they remained (decomposing) in this building until 1963, when the Czech government sought a buyer for the treasures. Eric Estorick, a British art dealer, introduced the opportunity to Ralph Yablon, a founding member of London’s Westminster Synagogue. Yablon purchased the scrolls and donated them to his synagogue.

On February 7, 1964, 1,564 scrolls were delivered to London. According to Jeffrey Ohrenstein, “They were in plastic bags, like body bags.” Many of the scrolls were in disrepair. Fortunately, Rabbi David Brand, a sofer, was looking for work, and presumed that the synagogue would have at least one scroll in need of repair; he was shown an entire floor of scrolls in need of his attention. He worked in the synagogue for nearly 30 years, repairing all the scrolls – personally.

Shortly after their arrival in London, a trust was created to care for the scrolls and repairs were initiated. Over the next 30 years, over 1,400 scrolls were sent to synagogues around the world. Now the Trust focuses on raising awareness of the responsibility attached to the housing of these historic documents. Synagogues and institutions are asked to devote one Shabbat during the year to the Memorial Congregation to coincide with the anniversary of the deportation of that community and to memorialize the many murdered Jews by remembering their names on that Shabbat and Yom HaShoah and Yum Kippur.

The Czech Torah Scrolls Viewed in Manhattan @ Temple Emanu-El, February 5, 2019

With more than 75 scrolls from over 10 different states and countries on view, hundreds of people crowded the auditorium at Temple Emanu-El. The scrolls are identified by number and no longer have their original mantles. The current scroll covers range from sumptuous velvet to tartan plaid with an outstanding cover designed in the stripes of a concentration camp prison uniform. The Torahs were carried by Temple members as well as representatives from nearby synagogues and Houses of Worship. The scroll procession was accompanied by a violin playing Etz Hayim (A tree of life) from Proverbs.

 

 

In his emotionally moving words to the audience, Jeffrey Ohrenstein said: “The Torah is the one thing that binds all Jews together. We would like our scroll holders to use the scrolls in a way that reminds people of what we have in common rather than what divides us.”

For additional information, go to memorialscrollstrust.org.

© Dr. Elinor Garely. This copyright article, including photos, may not be reproduced without written permission from the author.

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