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City Wonders Vatican Tour Recognized as The Number 1 Experience Globally by Trip Advisor

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Leading European tour operator City Wonders is thrilled to announce that its Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica tour has been voted as the Number One Experience globally by Trip Advisor.

The Travelers Choice Award is the highest honor possible from Trip Advisor and is based on the reviews and opinions of millions of travelers worldwide.


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“We’re delighted that our tour of the Vatican has been recognized as the number one experience globally by Trip Advisor” says CEO Simone Gozzi. “We strive to give our guests unforgettable experiences by focusing on exceptional quality, excitement and insights when visiting the top sites in Europe. Being voted number one Traveler’s Choice is recognition from our guests that our focus is paying off.”

As well as being rated the Number One Experience globally, the City Wonders tour won three other categories; Top Cultural Experience in the World, Top Experience in Europe and Top Experience in Italy.

City Wonders is the only tour operator that has the highest partnership status with the Vatican, giving guests exclusive benefits for a truly exceptional experience. Exclusive benefits include entering the Vatican before opening hours, access to restricted areas, skip-the-line and highly-trained expert guides.

For more information, additional tours and booking details visit citywonders.com.

About City Wonders

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Created for travel enthusiasts with inquisitive minds, City Wonders is a tour operator specializing in exclusive and expert tours throughout Italy, France, Spain and the UK. Its intimate tours and day trips invite travelers to go beyond sightseeing, bringing the wonders of each destination to life through behind-the-scene experiences. Founded by an entrepreneurial and charismatic Italian-born tour guide, the City Wonders mission is to offer unprecedented access and unexpected insight into the most popular cities, museums, monuments and landmarks around the world. For more information, visit www.citywonders.com.  

Other awards City Wonders has received from Trip Advisor in 2019 include Hall of Fame status for receiving the Certificate of Excellence for five consecutive years.

MEDIA CONTACT: Stacy Royal, 646.650.2185, 135 W 41st St, FL 5, New York, NY 10036, stacy@deckerroyal.com

Swiss-Belhotel brings special offers to Arabian Travel Market

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Swiss-Belhotel International has created exciting packages for wholesalers and tour operators that will be launched at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) taking place in Dubai from April 28 to May 1, 2019. Targeted at Middle East travelers, the group has put together a fabulous range of offers that will be available across its spectacular properties in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Laurent A. Voivenel, Senior Vice President, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India, Swiss-Belhotel International, said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of these exclusive packages that have been designed to provide unique experiences along with greater benefits and value to our Middle East partners as well as customers. We have superb properties located in some of the most sought-after destinations that attract large number of travelers from our region. With the summer holiday season around the corner, ATM presents us the ideal opportunity to launch these. Moreover, this year we are very excited about the ATM Holiday Shopper that we believe is a great addition to the show.”

The Special Packages offer a diverse choice of experiences at unbeatable rates: These include the following:

  • Special Golf Packages in Indonesia at various destinations – Jakarta, Batam, Bandung, Bali, Tarakan, Belitung, Surabaya, Jayapura, and in Vietnam in Da Lat.
  • Discounted wholesale rates for hotels in New Zealand and for hotels in Australia.
  • Early Bird discounts in the busiest destination in Australia, the hotel in Sydney offers 15% discounts for booking within April with stays valid till August and 10% for bookings until August with stays valid all throughout the year.
  • In Philippines, book at Makati and get a free room upgrade; and when you book at Manila get to enjoy the amazing introductory offer including breakfast for two.

Visitors to ATM can find Swiss-Belhotel International on stand HC0825 located in Sheikh Saeed Arena in Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

eTN is a media partner for ATM.

Travel News | eTurboNews

Lufthansa makes dedicated staff look bad: The eTN Hero is Patricia Dzai of Swissport Johannesburg

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Lufthansa

“My personal hero today is Ms. Patricia Dzai. Patricia works for Swissport in Johannesburg, South Africa,” said eTN Publisher Juergen Steinmetz. Swissport is one of the largest aviation ground-handling agencies operating in countries around the world.

Major airlines hire Swissport to manage customer relations and logistics when it comes to baggage handling, including lost or misplaced items.

Lufthansa German Airlines’ ground handler in Johannesburg is Swissport. I recently traveled from Nice to Cape Town via Frankfurt and Johannesburg on Lufthansa German Airlines. I am a United Airlines Star Alliance Gold member and traveled on Lufthansa in Business class. Lufthansa is a member of Star Alliance.

When I arrived in Johannesburg, I heard my name called by Lufthansa’s lost baggage office handled by Swissport.

I was told my tube was still in Frankfurt, and they would put it on the next flight to Johannesburg. I explained it was of utmost importance to have the tube for an important trade show event, the World Travel Market in Cape Town, in the morning.

Patricia Dzai, the Swissport agent in Johannesburg, wanted to make sure this would be possible and sent an urgent message to Lufthansa in Frankfurt. The message said:

 

 

 

 

 

I was pleased to know my tube would go on LH 576 directly to Cape Town almost in time for the start of World Travel Market.

I went on to fly to Cape Town and received a text message in the evening saying my tube would be on the Lufthansa flight to Johannesburg, which was different from what Patricia had requested. Since it was late and the Swissport office in Johannesburg was closed, I was able to find a non-published phone number for Lufthansa baggage service in Frankfurt. Lufthansa, like most airlines, is hiding phone numbers to encourage passengers to communicate only by email.

I was told by Lufthansa Baggage Service in Frankfurt no such message to forward my tube to Cape Town was ever received by Swissport Johannesburg. The agent went on to say that passengers are often not told the truth by Swissport agents.

The Lufthansa agent in Frankfurt explained that his job was not to help me, since this was only handled in Johannesburg. I argued my tube is in Frankfurt and not Johannesburg, and the handling agent for Swissport in Johannesburg was closed.

The agent then said he was now doing a one-time exception for me and would reroute my tube on LH576 directly to Cape Town. He said there were 5 hours to get this done, still plenty of time according to him.

The next day I received another message telling me again the tube was on its way to Johannesburg instead of Cape Town.

I called Swissport in Johannesburg, and the news not could have been worse. They told me, apologizing, that my tube was still in Frankfurt for a second day, and they did not know why.

I again called the baggage-handling office in Frankfurt and was again told it’s all Swissport’s mistake for not telling them where to send it.

This time I was angry and called Swissport Johannesburg again. I asked Patricia why she was lying about this. I told her she never sent this request to Frankfurt, according to Lufthansa.

Ten minutes later, I received an email with a time-stamped screenshot from Patricia Dzai showing me exactly what was requested by her in the first place.

Patricia actually had gone out of her way originally to make sure I would be united with my tube on time and in Cape Town. I felt bad thinking she didn’t care and didn’t do anything, when in fact she did.

It shows that big companies like Lufthansa have a serious customer service issue. They hide behind a huge system and are trained to say it’s not their job and simply blame others for company shortcomings.

There was no way I could talk to anyone at Lufthansa about this, and my urgent email to them on the day I was trying to get the tube re-routed was just responded to 2 weeks after I was already back home in Hawaii. Lufthansa offered a 200 euro compensation.

No explanation was given and no apology for accusing Patricia Dzai and Swissport for not doing their job.

I finally received my tube on the last day after the trade show and took it back to the US unopened. When I changed planes in Frankfurt, I asked the agent working in the Senator Lounge to speak to a supervisor in baggage handling about this case and compensation. She told me I have to send an email, which I had already done days ago.

She gave me some chocolate and said they get customers’ complaints all the time and do their best to help and respond, but the back-up system by the airline is not there.

It’s all about a giant non-caring anonymous machine.

I extend my apologies to Patricia Dzai from Swissport, as I now understand she was also a victim of shortcomings created by Lufthansa German Airlines.

Patricia Dzai is the eTN Hero for today.

Travel News | eTurboNews

TSA: New airport security scanner poses “privacy risks” to passengers

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US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is demanding modifications of a new airport security system because it poses “privacy risks” to passengers by showing too much of them on display, a newly published document has revealed.

Following a demonstration, the Transportation Security Administration has requested changes to the contract because the scanner they received “has privacy risks associated with the Graphical User Interface,” says the document dated March 26 and made public by Quartz on Monday.

While the document provides no further details on the exact nature of the privacy risks, the TSA required the scanner’s manufacturer to add additional security features before it would consider using the device in a “live environment.”

Using another government database, Quartz identified the contractor – whose name is redacted in the document – as Virginia security firm ThruVision. The document refers to ThruVision’s TAC scanner, which the company describes as a “proven people-screening camera that sees any type of item.”

The device is supposed to be part of TSA’s “Future Lane Experience” (FLEx), an effort to speed up security checks that have become a major headache for passengers in many airports.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority partnered with the TSA last year to deploy ThruVision’s portable TS4 scanner, which the TSA claims to have vetted “extensively” prior to using it on LA commuters. It is unclear whether the TSA had similar concerns about the TS4 before the device was used in the field.

Revelations about the TSA concerns over the new scanner come after last week’s report by ProPublica that accused the agency’s current hardware of “discriminating” against African-Americans by misreading their hair, requiring a disproportionate number of pat-downs.

The ACLU slammed the TSA in 2009 for using scanning technology to conduct “virtual strip searches” that provided TSA employees with photos of passengers’ genitals, breasts and buttocks. More was revealed in 2010, when the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) published TSA documents which further detail the scanners’ invasiveness.

Travel News | eTurboNews

SITA: Tracking airline passenger bags drives 66% improvement in baggage delivery

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Airlines that are adding tracking at more points of the baggage journey are enjoying a huge improvement in bag delivery globally. The SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights – officially launched at an event in Abu Dhabi International Airport today – shows that where tracking is done at check-in and loading onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement is as high as 66%.

These results come as the record drop in the baggage mishandling rate achieved globally over the past decade plateaus, with the rate steady at around 5.7 bags per thousand passengers over the past three years. In 2018, the rate was 5.69 per thousand passengers.

Over the past year, an increasing number of airlines and airports have started to introduce tracking at key points in the journey – check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfers and arrival – to improve baggage management and further reduce the chances of a bag being mishandled. SITA’s research provides the first glimpse of the success of this tracking. It reveals that where bags were being tracked when loaded onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement ranged between 38% and 66% depending on the level of tracking introduced.

Peter Drummond, Director of Baggage at SITA, said: “While the mishandling rate has started to plateau over the past few years, this comes against a continued growth in passenger numbers and their bags. In 2018, 4.36 billion travelers checked in more than 4.27 billion bags. More bags makes things more challenging. Everyone across the industry needs to look beyond the process and technology improvements made in the past decade and adopt the latest technology such as tracking to make the next big cut in the rate of mishandled bags.”

Ahmed Juma Al Shamsi, Acting Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “For our passengers the timely delivery of baggage is key to ensuring a seamless passenger experience and therefore an area in which we continue to make further improvements. Looking forward, baggage tracking is fundamental to driving more accurate bag delivery not only at Abu Dhabi International Airport but across the entire passenger journey. We have led the way with the introduction of tracking on arrival and we have already seen significant improvements.”

Transferring baggage from one aircraft, or airline, to another remains a pinch point in the journey and in 2018 it was again the main reason for bags being mishandled. Transfer bags accounted for 46% of all mishandled bags.
Drummond added: “Transfer is by far the most difficult stage to track a bag as there are multiple airlines and airports involved. However, data from this year’s report shows that tracking at key points in the journey, such as transfers, will go a long way to eliminating mishandling and will allow airlines and their passengers to keep tabs on where their bags are at every step of the way.”

Over the past decade, total number of mishandled bags per annum has plummeted 47% from 46.9 million in 2007 to 24.8 million in 2018, while the annual bill footed by the industry has shrunk 43% to $2.4 billion, down from $4.22 billion in 2007.

Travel News | eTurboNews