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Norwegian Cruise Line Announces Holiday Cruises 2019

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During the holidays, a vacation should put the family at ease, and cruising offers travelers stress-free planning, the opportunity to experience multiple destinations and the flexibility to cater to individual budgets and activities. With Norwegian’s philosophy of vacationing your way, guests can spend their holiday out-at-sea, stress-free, doing what they want, whenever they want with whoever they want.

With that said, below are some of Norwegian’s holiday cruise offerings:


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  • Norwegian Dawn Holiday Cruises to the Western Caribbean are perfect for the whole family! Guests enjoy Christmas on board with festive, family activities including sing-a-longs, caroling, gingerbread house making and a meet & greet with Santa Claus all while visiting the beautiful islands of the Caribbean including Costa Maya, Cozumel, Mexico and more.
  • Norwegian Gem Holiday Cruises go to the Southern Caribbean from New York. Escape the winter blues and visit and explore some of the most beautiful ports in the Caribbean for Thanksgiving, New Years Eve and Christmas!
  • Pride of America Holiday Cruises sails year-round from Honolulu, Oaho on a seven-day inter-island cruise with nearly 100 hours in port time and the one’s in December are great for those who would enjoy a longer vacation during the holidays. Guests can partake in four-day pre-cruise tours in Honolulu and Oahu to experience traditions of the Polynesian Culture Center & Kualoa Ranch, wander through the surfing town of Haleiwa and honor lives lost at Pearl Harbor’s USS Arizona Memorial.

For more information about Norwegian Cruise Line and to book a cruise, please contact a travel professional, or visit ncl.com.

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About Norwegian Cruise Line

As the innovator in global cruise travel, Norwegian Cruise Line has been breaking the boundaries of traditional cruising for over 52 years. Most notably, the cruise line revolutionized the industry by offering guests the freedom and flexibility to design their ideal vacation on their preferred schedule with no assigned dining and entertainment times and no formal dress codes. Today, its fleet of 16 contemporary ships sail to nearly 300 of some of the world’s most desirable destinations, including Great Stirrup Cay, the company’s private island in the Bahamas and its resort destination Harvest Caye in Belize.  Norwegian Cruise Line not only provides superior guest service from land to sea, but also offers a wide variety of award-winning entertainment and dining options as well as a range of accommodations across the fleet, including solo-traveler staterooms, mini-suites, spa-suites and The Haven by Norwegian®, the company’s ship-within-a-ship concept. For additional information or to book a cruise, contact a travel professional, call 888-NCL-CRUISE (625-2784) or visit ncl.com. For the latest news and exclusive content, visit the media center and follow the company on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @NorwegianCruiseLine; and Twitter and Snapchat @CruiseNorwegian.

MEDIA CONTACT: Hwee Peng Yeo, Executive Vice President, Glodow Nead Communications, E: hweepeng@glodownead.com

Major tour operators converging on Barbados for 2019 meeting with tourism partners

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Three weeks away from the May 1 start of the premier business-to-business marketplace, Connect Barbados, with over 100 participants – inclusive of 56 tour operators, have already registered to come and meet with local tourism partners including attraction providers and hoteliers.

Under the theme ‘Breathing Power into Business Connections’, the three-day conference is now in its 14th year. Tour operators have been invited from Barbados’ main source markets – the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Europe and Caribbean and Latin America. Tour operators such as: Air Canada Vacations, Virgin Holidays and Expedia Group, to name a few have already registered to come learn about what is new in Destination Barbados.

Connect Barbados is an annual conference providing opportunities to island operators to sell Barbados’ holiday products to invited tour operators in all of the island’s major source markets.

The marketplace allows global travel partners to learn about and experience the latest product and service developments on the island, while affording local partners the occasion to thank them for the tremendous contribution they continue to make the success of Barbados’ premier economic sector.

BTMI CEO, William ‘Billy’ Griffith, mentioned, “We are positively anticipating to surpass the 1,200 meeting appointments from Connect 2018 as we once again welcome and share our beautiful product with participating tour operators. Being able to connect our local service providers with the agents who have direct contact with potential visitors to Barbados will be extremely vital to both parties.”

This year, as we celebrate the Year of Wellness and Soft Adventure, tour operators will be treated to an outdoor welcome reception as they kick their feet in the sand at the “Feet in the Sand Beach Party, featuring top local entertainment and cuisine, before proceeding to two full days of business-to-business meetings at the Hilton Barbados Resort.

To close out the highly-anticipated conference, a special final evening reception will be held at the prestigious Harrison’s Cave and tour operators will get the opportunity to tour the cave first-hand. On the final day, participants will tour the island for a diverse Attractions Day, inspecting places of interest based on their specialties.

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Thomas Cook selling its travel business: Chinese investment fund interested

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Thomas Cook is the world’s oldest tour operator and was founded in Market Harborough in 1841 by businessman Thomas Cook. It started off with organized railway outings for members of the local temperance movement.

The travel company received approaches for parts of its business and the company as a whole, according to reports. The business put its airline up for sale in February and it said last month it would close 21 stores across the country and cut more than 300 jobs.

Chinese investment firm Fosun International could be a bidder for the company’s tour operating business, which runs a joint venture with Thomas Cook in China. It could be months before any formal offer is lodged, and there is no guarantee one will be made.

Thomas Cook now has annual sales of £9bn, 19 million customers a year and 22,000 staff operating in 16 countries.

In September, Thomas Cook said profits would be hit after the summer heat wave saw many take their holidays in the UK. It issued a second profit warning in November, when it said winter bookings were also down.

The shop closures will take the number of Thomas Cook outlets down to 566. It said a consultation with staff and unions had begun.

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No Easter Travel for Palestinian Christians in Gaza

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There are around 1,100 Palestinian Christians in Gaza, many of whom are descended from the earliest Christians in Palestine (where Christianity originated). For the first time, Israeli authorities denied all travel permits to Palestinian Christians from Gaza to celebrate Easter as they do each year, by processing from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to follow the path of Jesus in the Resurrection.

Can such a restriction be justified by security needs only?

Human right watchers say, Israel’s decision to outright deny movement between Gaza and the West Bank this Easter constitutes a further violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights to freedom of movement, religious freedom, and family life. The increased restriction on the movement of Palestinian Christians points to further implementation of Israel’s ‘separation policy’: a policy restricting movement between Gaza and the West Bank which deepens the split between the two parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.

The number of permits issued has diminished each year, and have included blanket bans on anyone under age 55 – but this is the first year that the Israeli military allowed no  Palestinian Christians from Gaza to travel to Jerusalem for Easter.

While some practice the Latin faith and mark Easter on the 21st of April this year, many others are Eastern Orthodox and celebrate Easter on the 28th. Their traditional ceremonies involve a commemoration of Palm Sunday in Bethlehem, then a procession from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was resurrected after death.

According to the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, “The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) published the quotas set by Israel for holiday permits to be granted to for Christian Palestinians living under Israel’s control. The quota allocated by COGAT for holiday permits for Gaza residents this Easter is limited to only 200 people over the age of 55, and only for travel abroad; the quotas for West Bank residents are limited to 400 permits for travel abroad, and visits in Israel. This means that Palestinian families separated between Gaza, Israel and the West Bank will not be able to mark the Easter holiday together. It also means that all Christians in Gaza are being denied access to family and to the holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The ban on Gaza Christians comes after Israeli military authorities announced the full closure of the West Bank and Gaza for Palestinian residents during the week of Passover, from April 19th to 27th. Israeli military authorities, which control all aspects of life for the occupied Palestinians living under their rule in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, frequently closing all Palestinian areas and preventing Palestinians from moving between Palestinian towns during periods of Jewish holidays.

In 2016 at least 850 Christian Palestinians from the Gaza City Strip traveled to celebrate Easter in Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities agreed to grant them permits.

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How is Germany doing on its goal of 2 million Indian tourists?

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At an annual media meeting today, April 16, in Delhi, India, Romit Theophilus, Director of Marketing & Sales Office India for the German National Tourist Office (GNTO), said it was hoping for growth of 6 to 8 percent.

The ultimate goal of the GNTO is to increase its tally of Indian tourists to 2 million a year by 2030, up from the present figure of 921,123 visitors overnight in 2018, making for growth of 8.1 percent.

The famous Bauhaus art school, which opened in Weimar in 1919, is celebrating 100 years this year, and steps are being taken to promote this art, design, and architecture as part of this tourism drive. 2020 will see the 250th anniversary of birth of Beethoven.

The German National Tourist Office is promoting the concept of affordable hospitality, stressing that tourists can enjoy leisure and other activities at costs cheaper than other European nations. The focus on a summer cities campaign is on the urban city, romance, holidays on the water, sightseeing, as well as art and culture.

Jasper Wieck, Deputy Head of Mission for the German Embassy, added a new dimension, pointing out that the two countries, India and Germany, have emotional links and mutual affection dating back centuries. He recalled that Tagore had also played a part in Indo-German links and that the number of students from India in Germany had doubled in the last 5 years, standing at 17,500. In addition, yoga is being practiced by a significant number of Germans and studies on India are being offered in over 16 universities and institutes.

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