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Key takeaways from ACV’s 2024 Europe Breakfast Seminars

MONTREAL — Over 1,200 travel advisors attended Air Canada Vacations’ 2024 Europe Breakfast Seminar series, which took place across 20 Canadian cities. Concluding last week, the series invited agents to learn about the latest trends and updates about the upcoming European travel season from a long list of tourism boards and cruise lines, including: Tourism Ireland; Tour Greece; Visit Portugal; TopAtlântico; Meet&Greet your Italian Way; EuroAmerica; TerraNova Iceland; Melia International; Iberostar Hotels & Resorts; Royal Caribbean International; MSC Cruises; Princess Cruises; Norwegian Cruise Line; and Celebrity Cruises. While learning about Europe’s vast array of winter tours and ski packages, alongside…
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The first Black travel agency flourishes, overcoming immense challenges: Travel Weekly

In the 1950s, it was far from easy for a Black woman in the American South to get the proper accreditations to issue airline tickets and operate a travel agency. But based on the late Freddye Scarborough Henderson’s handwritten notes, kept by her daughter Gaynelle, a bit of luck was on her side. Thanks to a more masculine sounding first name, and the English-sounding Scarborough, Freddye believed that issuing authorities thought he was a white man. She and her husband, Jacob Robert Henderson, opened Henderson Travel Service in Atlanta in 1955, the first Black-owned travel agency in the US Born…
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Travel agency says sorry after Suriname slavery gaffe

March 13, 2024 Slaves on a plantation in Suriname. Photo: RijksmuseumTravel agency TUI has apologized for a description accompanying a trip to the former Dutch colony of Suriname which included the phrases ‘step into the shoes of our brave forebears” and “taste the atmosphere at the plantations.” The text was highlighted on Instagram where it was met with indication from, among others, anti-racism group Kick Out Zwarte Piet (KOZP). TUI has since changed the wording in its brochure. “We hang our heads in shame,” TUI said in response to the Instagram post. “Undoubtedly, the copywriter had no malice in…
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Planning a honeymoon with ChatGPT

I was recently sitting in a hot tub with a friend — a glaciologist who studies how quickly the southern ice is sliding into the sea — when she mentioned that she had recently planned her honeymoon using ChatGPT. Our fellow bathers burst into laughter. “You’d done it, too?” This, apparently, is the present state of get-together among friends in their early 30s: six people and three AI-assisted honeymoons between them.My friend is a pro at arranging helicopters and snow cat brigades to remote wedges of ice. But she was overloaded with decisions about charger plates and floral arrangements,…
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